


Fell in love with a spaceman

by Bluethenstaub



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Aww, Battle of New York (Marvel), Bisexual Peter Quill, F/M, Female Peter Quill, Kree (Marvel), Language Barrier, Meredith Quill survived, Mother-Daughter Relationship, No Guardians, Peter never got abducted, Road Trips, Rule 63, Temporary Amnesia, The Avengers (2012) - Freeform, girl!Peter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluethenstaub/pseuds/Bluethenstaub
Summary: Aliens and flying saucers - these are just stories. Peta Quill learns the truth about that when she finds an alien in the woods.





	1. The Night Song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Staubengel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Staubengel/gifts).



> We do a staraccusemas - staraccuser secret santa - every year (everyone reading this should join us next year!) and this time I got the prompts of my beloved Staubengel <3
> 
>  This is basically a mix of two of her prompts: Peter showing Ronan some Terra(n) stuff and Ronan's ship crashing on Earth with bonus Meredith alive.
> 
> I hope you'll like it, darling!  
> Happy Holidays to everyone.

It was already dark when Peta Quill drove back home in her old pickup truck. It had been a long evening, her roller derby team had played in a tournament today. They didn't win, but they came in second. A good place, Peta thought, considering the fact that Mia and Emma, their best blockers on the team, hadn't been able to play today due to a really nasty flu.

After the game, the team went to a nearby bar to celebrate. Nearly everyone drank. They were, after all, a rather young team, all between nineteen and twenty-seven years old. Peta with her nineteen years was the youngest and the only one not allowed to drink legally. It had been up to her to drive the girls back home, but she didn't mind. She had fun anyway.

She did mind, though, that she had to drive home alone through the forest at night. It didn't feel safe. It felt especially unsafe on a night like tonight when it started to rain.

Peta sighed and lowered the volume of her music. Even though she did prefer loud music over almost everything else, she also prefered to know what was coming. And she was sure she knew better what was coming for her when the music wasn't so loud.

Softly, Peta hummed the tunes of Lady Gaga when she saw a shooting star. She stared at it for a moment. She had never seen a meteor that clearly - and she had seen many - especially not during rain.

“What the…?” Peta gasped. This was no ordinary shooting star! It came closer and closer and didn’t burn out.

She stopped her truck to get a better look. No, this was certainly no shooting star falling from the sky. This was something different. Was it… a spaceship? An exit pod from a spaceship? Maybe it was a new kind of airplane.

Her common sense told her to call the police and secure the location where the… thing had just landed, but since when did Peta listen to her common sense?

Peta started her truck again and drove to the collapse site.

 

***

 

The trees nearest the pod were burned on the side facing the crash site, every fire was immediately extinguished by the rain. There was no crater as she had expected it - the movies had lied to her!- there was just a small, dark pod lying on the ground. All the dry leaves and sticks had been blown away by impact of the landing.

Peta turned off her engine but kept the lights on. Was she going to be the first person to make contact with an intelligent alien? Okay, trusting her mom’s sickness monologues, was she going to be the _second_ person to make contact with an alien? Maybe not even that. There were, after all, several reports of UFO-sightings and alien abductions all over the world.

Carefully she walked towards the pod.

It was closed and she wasn't able to take a look inside, so she waited for the alien to come out.

What would they look like? Were they one of the grey people you could see on tv? Maybe they looked like a Vulcan. Maybe it was Jabba the Hut’s little slug brother. Maybe it was a lizard lady with lizard tiddies like in all the weird sexualized pictures!

Peta waited fifteen minutes before she finally decided it was enough. She got closer to the pod. Only now she was able to see a dark console, barely visible upon the dark surface.

Not knowing what to do, she did the only thing that came into her mind, even though a small part of her consciousness told her not to do it. But, as per usual, she ignored this part. Peta put her hand on the console.

To her great surprise, the pod opened. But not the front that faced the sky, no. That would have been too lucky. No, one of the sides opened and a dark figure fell out, face first into the mud.

 _Glorious entrance, evil alien,_ she thought. _Could have been me._

“You alive?” Peta asked as she kneeled down. He didn't look alive. _Great, Peta, you find an alien, but he’s dead._ Or maybe he wasn't dead, and the reason he didn't answer was because he didn't understand English. “Stupid girl, assuming he's able to understand you,” she mumbled to herself.

Carefully she grabbed the alien’s helmet and turned his face towards her. She held a hand in front of his slightly open mouth. Good. He was still breathing.

Or was he? _Better double check_ , she told herself as she put her fingers on the side of his neck. She was able to feel his heartbeat, but it was really slow. Not only that, but his skin was cold, too. Or maybe her skin was cold and she couldn't feel his temperature right. Or it was the fault of the mud and the rain. What if his skin was supposed to be this cold and his heart was supposed to beat this slow? What did she know about aliens! Nothing! She had to assume the best.

Maybe now was a good time to call the police. Or the hospital. Or the president. Or maybe the X-Files Department or the Men in Black.

But she didn't call anyone. She grabbed the alien and pulled him fully out of the pod. He was really heavy.

Breathing heavily, she sat down next to him in the mud, considering what she could do next. She knocked against the plates of his weird helmet. “Hello, wake up.” No reaction. “Mister Mudface, sir.” No reaction. “Darling, wake up, your wife's coming home!” The alien still didn't wake up. “Okay, big guy, you're really out cold. Damn. Fine!”

 _Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch’ ich Gewalt._ Peta remembered these words from a poem in her German class. Maybe she wasn’t able to remember who had written the poem, but she was certainly willing to use this as her motto to get the alien to her home.

Peta turn him onto his back. Only now she saw that he was holding onto a weird hammer and a little brown package. She took the hammer out of his hands. It was really big and long, and probably not used for woodwork. She swung it around. It was probably for mushing in heads and such things. Peta took the brown package out of his hands and opened it. In it were several dark boxes. As she wasn’t able to open them right away, she decided to take a look at them later, at home. Peta bought the package and the hammer (and the movies always said they’d use laser weapons in space!) to the passenger seat of her car before she faced the alien again.

“Okay, Alien Steve, let’s get undressed. I bet you’re a lot easier to lift when you’re naked.”

Not that she wanted to see a naked alien, no. Okay, she wanted to see a naked alien, but not now. Now, she wanted to bring the alien home before the local authorities found him.

She examined Alien Steve’s armor careful and was able to find some buckles to open. But it was only after she found out that she had to remove the shoulder protection first that she was able to get the armor off his body. The shoulder protection held the helmet in place which kept the breast plate from being removed. The armor pieces were heavy. It was a good thing she didn’t have to carry them all at the same time to her truck bed, she simply had to walk a bit more often.

Finally, Alien Steve was only wearing long, black underclothes. Black underclothes with a sprinkle of mud. This was probably the next winter’s fashion in space, and Peta had discovered it!

“Okay, Alien Steve. Make yourself light, big boy.”

Of course, Alien Steve didn’t make himself light. He was still heavy as fuck, and Peta had problems moving him. But she was nothing if not determined.

Finally, she had moved him to her truck and onto the bed. Collapsing beside him, she closed her eyes for a moment.

“Hope you’re worth the effort, big guy.” She panted. “Please don’t kill me when you wake up, okay?”

Of course, Alien Steve didn’t answer.

Peta took it as a “yes.”

She smiled and left the truck bed, making her way back to the pod. She quickly checked it, but there was nothing else inside, nothing that could be important to Alien Steve.

Since there was nothing else there, she could finally get home.

 

***

 

“Mooooom!” Peta stuck her head through the door. “I’m gonna switch cars, I need the garage!”

“Alright, honey. My keys are on the table,” her mother answered from the living room.

Peta grabbed the keys and hurried back outside to her mother’s car in the garage. Quickly she drove it outside and put her own car in its place.

Alien Steve was still lying unconscious, wet and in his brown-sprinkled underclothes, on the bed of her truck, right next to his armor.

A quick check revealed that Peta was no less muddy, so she decided to get undressed first.

She grabbed the hammer, the mysterious brown package, and her sports bag, and left the garage. Since the laundry room was directly next to the garage, she left her dirty clothes right there.

“I'm coming right to you, I just need new clothes,” she said in passing to her mom. A quick glance into the living room revealed that Meredith Quill was watching one of these tear-jerking romances she loved so much. Of course, Meredith had been at the game earlier. She never missed even one of her only child’s games, but she had gone home afterward and stayed awake until Peta was back home, like she had done countless times since Peta had gone out on her own for the first time.

Quickly Peta ran upstairs to her room, nearly falling over a basket full of fresh clothes.

She threw her sports bag in the corner where it would lay until the next training on thursday. Much more gently, she placed the hammer next to it and put the package on her desk.

Peta grabbed the first shirt out of the basket (“Make Love, Not Horcruxes”) and the old pair of sweatpants she wore most of the time when she was at home, and got dressed. She gave the basket a gentle nudge with her foot so it wouldn't get in her way the next time she visited her room.

She went back downstairs, leaning against the doorframe of the living room. Her eyes rested on the back of her mother's blonde head for a moment, unsure if she should tell her about the muddy person in the garage. Meredith already had so much to stress about at the library these days. This wasn't good for her, especially since the cancer ten years ago had weakened her so much. But she was a fighter. Meredith would probably live to be one hundred.

So what could an alien do to her? Only give her flashbacks of Peta’s father, if he really was an alien like Meredith had told her.

To be honest, Peta had thought for years that he was no spaceman, no light angel. She had thought for a long time that her mom had experimented too much with drugs in her youth and that this oh-so-perfect daddy had just been a guy who had taken advantage of Meredith and her drug dreams. Or maybe a guy who had taken the same drugs and in a sudden moment of enlightenment they had decided to make love without a condom.

But now since she knew that aliens were real? She wasn't so sure anymore.

“Mom, I've got a problem.”

Meredith turned around. “What is it honey?”

“It's in the truck.”

Meredith got up, concern in her face. “Did you kill someone?”

Peta’s eyes widened. “What? Mom! No! I didn't kill someone!”

“Are you going to tell me in the truck that you’re pregnant?” She followed her daughter into the garage.

“No, why? That’s ridiculous, really.” Peta had left the light on in the garage. If the alien woke up in the short time Peta was not around, he wouldn’t think that he was still in the pod. “It’s worse than that, but not as bad as murder.” She pointed to the truck bed.

Now that there was light, she could see that the skin of the alien was light blue with weird black marking over his bald head.

“I saw his pod crashing and found him unconscious. I didn’t know what to do with him.”

“Oh.” Meredith got closer to the truck bed. “Is he still alive?”

“Last time I checked. What do I do? How do I nurse an alien back to health?”

“How should I know? I never did something like this.”

“But you're my mom! You know everything!” _And you're the one of us who has actual experience with aliens_ , she added silently.

“I don't know everything,” Meredith replied, her eyes wandering from the alien to her daughter. “Maybe we should check if he has any wounds and clean him up a bit.”

“Yes, but how?”

“We’ll bring him to your room and undress him.”

“We can't bring him to my room!”

“Why not? He's not the first man to see it. And I'm sure right now he doesn't care that you didn't clean up.”

“Moooom!” Why was she like this? Why? “I didn’t mean _that_! Alien Steve is heavy! He weighs tons!”

An amused smile appeared on Meredith’s face. “Alien Steve?”

“Yeeeah. Don't ask. Point is, I don't think we can get him upstairs. He's too heavy.”

“So you're giving up before you even try?”

“...”

“I didn't raise my child to be a quitter.”

“But only because you keep pushing me.”

“And now I push you again. Do you want his upper body or his legs?”

“His upper body,” she answered immediately. She wasn't too fond of feet, not even dirty blue feet with no socks. Especially not dirty feet with no socks!

Meredith and Peta worked the alien down the truck bed.

Peta grabbed him under the arms while Meredith grabbed his legs and slowly they carried him into the laundry room.

Meredith put his legs down again and helped her daughter to remove Alien Steve’s shirt, revealing the most defined six-pack Peta had ever seen. “Oh, if I wasn’t so old and already taken… he looks real good, don’t you think?” Meredith asked.

“Mom!”

“What? He really does look good!” she said as she threw Alien Steve’s shirt to Peta’s dirty clothes.

“Don’t say such things! You’re my mom!”

“Does that mean that I’m not allowed to find people good looking?”

“No!”

“And here I was thinking you were more open than this.”

“I am open! Just not… no! Let me take off his pants! You’re not allowed to look if he’s not wearing underwear!”

“Now you’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m not!”

“Yes, honey, you are.”

“Just hold him!” she said as she pushed the unconscious alien towards Meredith.

Unprepared for this, Meredith’s knees gave a bit, unable to hold his whole weight all by herself.

“Sorry!” Immediately after seeing her distressed face, Peta grabbed the alien’s hips and pulled him towards her.

Now Meredith was able to stand straight again, managing to hold the alien up.

As the alien’s leather pants had no zipper, Peta carefully pulled them down, trying not to remove Alien Steve’s underwear at the same time. She still didn’t want her mom to see the alien naked, not because she had some sort of claim on him (okay, maybe she had. After all _she_ had found him, so she was going to nurse him back to life, and Peta’s mom had already had an alien boyfriend twenty years ago), but because she didn’t want her mother to see a naked man. She was _her mother_ after all. There was also the fact that Meredith already had a boyfriend! She wasn’t allowed to see other naked men.

Pants dropping to the floor, Peta dared to take a look at his underwear. What was the newest underwear fashion in space? “Oh. Sexy.” She was utterly disappointed.

Even Meredith looked down. “Is he wearing a black diaper?”

“Steve’s a real gothic baby.” Peta patted his butt. “Don’t you see it?”

“That would explain the make up.”

“Are you able to hold him on your own, or do we need to lean him against the washing machine?”

“I think I can manage,” Meredith answered.

Peta got down on her knees, still supporting Meredith in holding the alien, and being more or less helpful. “It’s not a diaper, it’s some kind of bandages wrapped around him,” she said. She inspected the underwear from this position for a second before she helped Steve’s feet out of the stirrup pants.

“I suppose he’ll keep his diaper.”

“I think so, too. We don’t have any clean underwear for him here, do we?”

“Well, if we want him to wear panties, which are too small for him…”

“Rather not.”

“So the diaper stays.”

Once again Peta and Meredith took the alien and carried him out of the laundry room to the stairs. They took a short break at the foot of the stairs, discussing whether they should leave Alien Steve in the living room on the couch or if they should bring him upstairs to Peta’s room, but they stayed with their decision to bring him to Peta’s room. They had no idea how long he was going to be unconscious, and they wanted to be able to use the living room. Peta could sleep in Meredith’s bed, but they couldn’t sit on Alien Steve while watching TV.

When he was finally in her bed, Peta shooed Meredith out of her room. She could handle it herself from now on. She checked him for visible injuries - he didn't have any, his rough, marmoreal skin was in perfect condition - before she tucked him under her blanket. She could do nothing else but wait right now.

“I hope you wake up before your bladder does,” she told him and sat down at her desk, opening the leather package. “Now, what’s in here?”

In there were two boxes and a ball. The ball was the perfect size to fit in one of her hands, the first box was long and small, and the second was large and tall.

Peta decided to inspect the ball first.

It was a silver ball with black ornaments cut into it. At first glance there was nothing to could suggest how to open it. Peta held it close to her ear and shook it. It didn't make any noise. She tried to open it, but she found no way.

The boxes were both made of the same fluted black material as the space pod. Peta didn't know exactly what it was, but it looked like some kind of stone. But that would be absurd. No stone had the properties space travel needed, metal was better. She tried to scratch it, maybe it was just some kind of metal painted black. But nothing, no paint stayed on her nails, there was no scratch on the surface.

Weird.

Speaking of paint… Peta went back to her bed and Alien Steve, leaning down to his face. He smelled like dirt - she was pretty sure she knew why, there were still sprinkles of dirt on his face, maybe she should get a cloth and wash him - honey, smoke, and faintly of… lavender? It wasn’t such a bad combination.

Softly she poked his cheek. He still didn’t wake up. Carefully she scraped some of his make-up from his chin. The black mass felt like really rough cement, not yet completely dry, but not wet either.

Weird.

She tried to wipe it off her fingers, but it stayed there, clinging to it like a baby koala to its mother. She could move it around, but whatever she tried, it stayed on her skin. Either it was on one of her hands or the other one. In the end she wiped her hand on Alien Steve’s face where the black lump stayed on his cheek like a nasty booger.

Peta went back to her desk, taking a closer look at the boxes, finding out that she was actually able to open them. They were just fancy space clamshell storage boxes. Did they have space Tupperware parties?

Her heart beat faster when she came to that realization. What cool alien stuff would the boxes contain?

There was a light blue screen in the long box, not unlike a common tablet. But the major difference was that was that it was translucent. Peta’s eyes lit up. This was just like in _Star Wars_! This was so cool!

She tried to start the screen. She pressed its surface, she softly stroked it, she pressed the edges hoping for a button there, but it didn't start up. Peta laid it flat on her desk. Maybe it would start now and produce a hologram asking Obi Juan, whoever the fuck he is, for help. But still nothing happened.

Weird.

Maybe it didn't survive the crash and was broken.

The big box contained several vials, some with short syringes at one end. Peta opened some and smelled them. They didn’t smell special. She didn’t taste them, though, she wasn’t _that_ dumb, she had listen in her chemistry classes. There were even some bandages and some sterile smelling flasks in it.

There was something written on a light gray card, probably the instructions, but Peta wasn't able to read it.

It was a first aid box!

Except this one wasn't going to give that much first aid since Peta didn’t know what to use the stuff in it for. She didn’t want to poison Alien Steve, after all.

There was no use in continuing to explore the boxes and the ball now. It was late, she was tired, and she was in dire need of a shower. Peta turned her chair towards Alien Steve. “Blueberry, please don’t wake up while I’m in the shower, or worse, while I’m sleeping, alright? Take your time. Your saucer’s in no condition to fly back into space after all, I think. If the Men in Black didn’t seize it by now.” She smiled at him. “And if you do wake up, please don’t go on a rampage, kill us, and destroy the house. Thank you.”

They always said that people in comas could understand you when you talked to them, so why shouldn’t this be true for aliens, too?

Peta got up and grabbed a fresh shirt (with a rainbow coloured dinosaur) to sleep in and fresh panties. Alien Steve was lying on the sleep shirt she had used the last few nights, and he was so heavy, there was no use in trying to get it.

She gave the alien one last look, her eyes lingering on his peaceful features, and maybe resting a bit too long on his luscious lips, before she left for the bathroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why the hell did my brain think it was a good idea to start a new multi chapter fic? I have no idea...


	2. The Language Song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year, y'all! <3

When Peta checked her room the next morning, Alien Steve was still unconscious, but alive. Once again she checked his pulse, but it didn’t feel to her like it had changed.

She could live with that. Hopefully Steve would wake up soon. Now might be the weekend, but it would end, and on monday she had to go to work.

And she didn't want to call in sick just because of some guy.

The day passed quite uneventful.

It was only in the evening when Peta was watching _Star Trek_ (for some unknown reason she was in the mood to watch a series with aliens. She wondered why!) in the pillow fort she had built next to her bed (she was an expert pillow castle builder. The fact that her mom wasn't at home all day had really helped her in using all the materials of the house), when she heard a deep groan.

As it certainly wasn't her or her laptop who had groaned, there was only one possibility! Alien Steve must have woken up!

Immediately Peta stopped the video and crawled out of her pillow fort. She got up on her knees and looked at him.

For several seconds nothing happened, but then he groaned again and opened his eyes.

They were the most intense purple colour Peta had ever seen.

He looked at the ceiling for a moment, probably asking himself where he was. He turned his head towards her, confusion in his eyes.

“ _Ki rebit?_ ” he asked with a voice so deep and smooth it found its way right into Peta’s heart.

But not even with the help of her heart did she understand what he had just said. Probably something along the lines of “Where am I?” or “Who are you?” At least, this was what she would have asked when she woke up in a unknown person’s room.

“Okay, first things first,” Peta started while Alien Steve carefully sat up. “I have no idea what you’ve just said, but I assume you’ve asked where you are. You’re in my bedroom on Earth. You’ve crashed in your pod, at least I think it was a pod, and I found you yesterday night, unconscious. And if I can’t understand you, why should you understand me…”

“ _Ká Terra rebit?_ ” Alien Steve shook his head and sighed.

So, if “ _Ki rabbit?_ ” meant “Where am I?”, what did “ _Ká Terra rabbit?_ ” mean? Was “ _Terra_ ” a word in his language? Or maybe, maybe there was a chance that someone ages ago had abducted some Roman and thus “ _Terra_ ” was the name her planet was known as in the universe! But what did it have to do with bunnies?

“Do you understand me?”

Alien Steve nodded. “ _Ari._ ”

What a nice change of events! They could work with that. One-way communication was better than none-way communication.

He put a hand on his chest. “Ro-Nan.”

“So… You’re Ronan?”

“Ronan?” He shook his head again. “ _Ta._ Ro-Nan.”

“Yeah. Ronan.”

“ _Ta._ ” He emphasised every syllable. “Ro. Nan.” Peta still didn’t hear any difference between the way he said it and she did.

“Ronan.” She tried to say it like him, but it just didn’t work.

He rolled his eyes. Apparently Peta was just not able to say his name right, but to call him “Ronan” was better than to call him “Alien Steve.”

She imitated Ronan’s gesture and pointed at herself. “I’m Peta.”

“Peta?” he repeated. Ronan had no problem saying her name right.

“Yes.”

Ronan frowned but nodded.

“You don’t have any external wounds, at least I didn’t find any when I checked, but maybe there’s something under your makeup which I didn’t see, but I doubt it.”

Ronan frowned even more and sat up. Carefully his hands started to feel all over his upper body. He winced once or twice. Broken ribs? Maybe.

Peta came closer to the bed. “Do you think you can walk on your own?”

Ronan shrugged.

“Okay, I’ll help you. And I think you should really take a shower. You’re quite dirty. You fell into the mud, after all. And, I have to admit, I didn’t clean you when we brought you up here. We just undressed you.”

“ _Ki relóworbiz?_ ”

“What?”

“ _Ki._ ” Ronan pointed around with a questioning look on his face. " _Re._ " He pointed at himself. “ _Lówor._ ” He grabbed Peta’s shirt and pulled at it softly before doing the same thing with her pants. “ _Biz._ ” He pointed at himself.

“Your clothes?”

He nodded, happiness that she was able to figure out what he had meant on his face.

“My mom and I took them off before we brought you up here. After I got you out of the pod, you fell into the mud. And I wasn’t able to carry you to my truck all on my own, you’re way too heavy, so I took off your armor, and here we took off the rest of your clothes, because everything was just dirty. Except your underpants. We’ve kept them on. Your stuff’s already clean and dry again, I think. Maybe. I’ll have to check it. Later. Now you should probably take a hot shower, if you like that, you can also take a cold shower if you prefer, and, uh, try to remove that stuff on your face. I wasn't able to do that and I bet it starts to itch after a while.”

Carefully Ronan put his feet on the floor and tried to get up. But he didn't make it far. He wasn't even able to get his butt into the air before he had to hold his sides in pain.

“Okay, big guy. Looks like you need some help."

“ _Ari_.”

Slowly and carefully, she helped Ronan to stand up and make his way to the bathroom. He wasn't able to bear his weight on his right foot, so she had to support him. He didn’t seem to like her helping him walk.

After a quick introduction to the shower (space showers apparently worked almost as human showers), Peta left the bathroom and went downstairs into the kitchen. She was hungry, and Ronan probably too, so she put two pizzas into the oven, setting the alarm of her phone so the pizza wouldn't burn. Back in her room she put new sheets on her bed. The old ones were quite dirty since she hadn't cleaned Ronan before laying him down. She also destroyed her pillow fort and put every part back in its original place. Finally, she closed her laptop and put it on her desk.

As Peta’s eyes fell on the leather package, she had an idea. Ronan would probably use the first aid kit and the screen to call for help, but the ball? She still hadn't figured out what it was or how to open it, but she couldn’t _not_ find out. She was way too curious. Peta knew it wasn't the right thing to do as she took the ball and put it into the bottom drawer of her desk, hiding it under some papers, but she couldn't help it.

Who knew what Ronan would be able to do once he had the ball. Maybe it was a weapon and he would destroy the whole planet as soon as he got his hands on it.

Peta left her room and listened at the bathroom door to see if Ronan was still in the shower. She couldn't hear any water, so she knocked. “Are you finished? I think our dinner’s almost ready.”

“ _Ari_ ,” Ronan answered.

Peta opened the door and walked into the bathroom, expecting Ronan to be wrapped up in a towel she had given him beforehand.

But, no.

Ronan was completely naked, standing in front of the mirror, cleaning his face with a sponge.

She could just see his backside, but hot damn.

This was the nicest ass Peta had ever seen. If his front was also that impressive, she would totally pull off her clothes immediately, and demand of Ronan take her right now on the bathroom floor.

Slowly her eyes wandered back up to Ronan's broad shoulders, and they focused automatically on the mirror.

Ronan was watching her with an amused smile on his face.

“ _Ká rem tor domur?_ ” he asked.

“Yeah, no idea what you just said, but you should probably get dressed.” Once again her eyes wandered away from his face, over his broad shoulders and his muscular arms, right down to... her nail polish remover.

“Ah. So you use this to remove the makeup,” she mumbled. “I'll be back in a minute with some clothes. Don't run away.”

Before Ronan could say anything else (not like she’d understand it anyway), she hurried out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. What was it about Ronan that made her feel so nervous? He was just a naked man. A beautiful, naked alien-man, but nothing more.

Quickly she sized up her wardrobe. She didn't have any pants for Ronan, she knew that much, but she did have a pair of boxer shorts that would fit him. Sometimes she liked to sleep in them. She also found her oversized _Jurassic Park_ t-shirt. It was oversized for her, Ronan it would fit just fine.

She went back to the bathroom where Ronan had just finished cleaning off the black paint. Now he was rinsing his face with water once again and then he dried it.

Peta hurried to his side as he turned around to her. He looked softer, more friendly, without the paint on his face.

“Here. Shirt and pants,” Peta said, and gave both to him. Before she had the chance to look down at his crotch again, her phone started to beep. “And dinner’s ready.” She turned off the alarm just as Ronan pulled up his pants. Thank God. Now it wouldn't look anymore as if Peta was some pervert creep. “I’ve put a pizza into the oven. I don’t know if you have something like this on your planet-”

“Hala.”

“What?”

Ronan sighed and pointed at her. “Terra.” He pointed on himself. “Hala.”

“Oh! Your planet’s name’s Hala!”

“ _Ari_.”

“Awesome! So do you have pizza there?”

“Pizza _teglást_ ,” Ronan answered and pulled the shirt over his head. He frowned and tugged his shirt. It wasn’t too small or too big for him, as far as Peta saw. It fitted him quite well. Maybe he didn't like dinosaurs. “Pizza. _Ta_.”

“Ah, so you’ve got no pizza. Good. Then you’re going to taste the best piece of food in the whole existence of food.”

Ronan huffed, amused, as if he didn’t believe her. He put an arm around her and Peta helped him out of the bathroom. Slowly they made their way downstairs. It didn't work very well. Maybe it was because Ronan was reluctant to have someone help him, maybe it was because Peta was over one head smaller than him, maybe it was because they had to manage going down the stairs together and that was quite complicated. It was probably a combination of all these things.

Ronan sat down at the kitchen table while Peta switched off the oven. “You eat it with your fingers,” she explained as she set up the table. “From the pointy end to the crust. But you can also eat it the other way. I wouldn’t recommend that, though. The better stuff’s on the inside, but it’s all wobbly and falls down easily. And believe me, you don’t want that.”

They ate in silence, unable to hold a normal conversation, after all. Ronan was completely focused on his pizza. Peta, on the other hand, got lost in Ronan's face. Being able to multitask was a blessing.

“I have some stuff of yours upstairs,” Peta informed Ronan after they had cleaned up the table. “I found it in a bag in your wreckage.”

“ _Rem wejaor._ ”

“Sure. Whatever. I’m going to bring it down here. Maybe you can use it to send a message back home. It’s not like I want to keep you here forever.”

“ _Due zetehagur._ ”

“You know that I have no idea what you say.”

“ _Ari._ ”

“So why do you keep talking?”

“ _I rezegadr! I ká ona wetevot? I ká vor zemrun hagur? I á revot á tevot tezudomut! I teó kárekomhagur tam biz. I kalaterrabiz reteagarat._ ”

“I still don’t know what you’re saying!” Peta shouted and crossed her arm. Ronan’s language sounded so strange to her, she wasn’t able to make out any single words at all. Was everything just one big word? The grammar was clearly different from any grammar she knew. She was barely able to figure out when something Ronan said was a question. And she was sure that Ronan spoke extra slow for her. She was also sure that she had just heard “Terra” in Ronan’s rant, but maybe her ears had played a trick on her.

“ _Tekreevówurdómur._ ”

“Yes. Yeah. Well… I’m gonna get your stuff.”

Peta left the kitchen and got the package with the boxes from her room. She placed them on the table. “A med pack and a screen, I think,” she told him, leaning onto the table. “I wasn't able to figure out how to make it work, though.”

Ronan grunted softly and grabbed the med pack. Quickly he inspected it, before he grabbed two of the vials, one of those with the syringe. He said something in his weird alien language to Peta, but of course she didn't understand it. Before she could make another remark, he drank the first vial, pulled up his t-shirt, and rammed the syringe right into his stomach.

Ouch.

For a short moment he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Everything alright?”

“ _Ari. Punt._ ”

“Mh,” Peta made. “I hope you'll get better now.”

“ _Ari._ ”

“Now, what about the screen?”

Ronan grabbed it by both sides and fondled it's sides.

Nothing happened.

He tried it again.

Still nothing happened. “ _Picov biz,_ ” he said. “ _Clazord._ ”

“Ah.” As usual she had no idea what Ronan had just said. “Does it work?”

“ _Ta._ ”

“Can you repair it?”

“ _Ari. Ta._ ”

“Yes and no? So maybe.”

“ _Ari._ ”

“Do you need anything for that?”

“ _Ari._ ”

“Do you think I can get you that stuff?”

Ronan pushed his lower lip forward and hesitated. “ _Ta._ ”

“Oh.”

“ _Leget kalaterrabiz._ ”

“Whatever this means, you’ve said this before. I think.”

Ronan rolled his eyes and put the vials and screen back into their boxes. His lower lip was still pushed forward, shoulders fallen, all spark vanished from his eyes. Peta couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. The screen was his only way of communicating with his home planet, and it was broken beyond repair. He had lost his home and had no way of ever getting back. And there was no one who was able to understand him. Peta could only imagine what it must feel like, a life all alone.

Reassuringly, she put a hand on his arm. His skin was still quite cold.

Ronan looked up to her.

“Want to go and visit the place where your pod crashed? Maybe we can find something there to help you repair it?” she offered even though she had her doubts they’d find anything. It didn’t hurt to look, though.

He nodded gently.

Peta told Ronan to stay where he was - not that he was able to wander far when he wasn’t able to put his weight on his foot - but still. She quickly checked in with the laundry room. Ronan’s clothes weren’t washed yet and she didn’t want him to sit with his dirty clothes in her truck. But he couldn’t go outside in just boxer shorts, could he?

She needed pants for Ronan.

There were no pants big enough for Ronan.

No, she was wrong.

There were pants big enough for Ronan in this house, one pair, to be exact. He would have to wear them, regardless if he liked it or not.

Peta pulled down her sweatpants.

With her pants in her hand she went back into the kitchen. “Your clothes are still dirty,” she said, watching Ronan's eyes widen in confusion at her sudden lack of pants. He glanced down at her naked legs and quickly back up to her face. “Take these. They're the only ones that will fit you.” She threw her pants at him who caught them without effort. “I'm gonna get dressed.”

Before she could walk off again, Ronan grabbed her hips and pulled her close. Peta’s heart began to beat faster. Carefully, his hand wandered over the big, purple bruise on her thigh.

Peta winced.

“ _Ko zem birer? Ká zezelóhacdepúntetáz?_ ”

“It's nothing,” she mumbled, her mouth suddenly very dry. “I play roller derby.”

“Roller derby?”

“Yeah. It's a sport. We had a game yesterday. The bruises are inevitable. This one here's rather small.” It was only the size of a big apple. Peta smiled. “They look like pictures of the universe, directly painted on my skin. And each one is special.”

“Peta, _krede bir._ ”

“Can I go now? I should get dressed.” She had a funny feeling in her stomach being that close to Ronan while half naked. She shouldn't allow herself to feel this way, it would only end in heartbreak if Ronan should ever return to his own world... _When._ When Ronan returned. They’d find everything Ronan needed to repair his screen at the collapse site. Ronan would definitely return to Hala and leave Peta here. And she would make sure that she wasn’t staying behind in the same condition as her mother had stayed behind when Peta’s father had left her.

“ _Ta._ ”

“No? Why not?”

Instead of answering, Ronan removed the hand from her thigh and grabbed the med pack. For a short moment he searched for something before he choosing a tube. He opened it with one hand. The other hand was still resting on her hip. His thumb had found its way under her shirt and was drawing slow circles over her skin.

Carefully, Ronan squeezed some light red cream on his fingers and began to massage it on the bruise. The bruise immediately started to cool down.

“You know, I don't mind the bruise. I quite like it, actually… And I’ve had worse.”

“Peta,” Ronan said lowly.

“Yes?”

“ _Wetevor._ ”

“I-"

“Ssh.”

“Ah. Be quiet...”

“ _Ari._ ”

Ronan massaged her bruise for a while and waited for some more minutes before he allowed Peta to give him a paper towel to clean his fingers. He put away the tube.

Grabbing the boxes, Peta hurried out of the kitchen again, going to her room. This had thrown her off her game. Her face was all hot and her heart beat so hard and loud that she was sure Ronan had been able to hear it. Who would ever have guessed that such an almost unbreakable alien like Ronan could be so gentle?

She put the boxes back on her desk.

Her eyes wandered down to the one drawer with the weird ball. It was wrong to keep it from Ronan, but he hadn't asked about it. Maybe he had forgotten about it.

It was still theft, though.

But even if he didn't know about it?

She sighed and shoved the thoughts away. She would deal with that later.

Peta put on some jeans and a long sleeved shirt, after all, late-April nights were still quite cold. She hesitated for a moment, but decided to get a hoodie for Ronan. Maybe he didn’t feel the cold, but what if someone saw them during their trip? Not everyone would react well to a blue man.

She got Ronan to wear the hoodie and brought him to the garage. But before they got in the cab of the truck, they unloaded the bed. There was no need for them to drive Ronan's armour around.

When Peta started the engine, The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child" began to play.

Ronan raised his brows. “ _Ká..?_ ”

“It's just music, don't worry. I can turn it off if you want.”

Ronan shook his head softly.

“Fine. Hoodie on the head.”

As Ronan covered his blue, bald head, Peta drove out of the garage, leaving town. Ronan was very interested in the houses they passed and everything he saw. It was, after all, probably the first time in his life that he’d seen her planet up close.

Peta began to fantasize. What would Ronan's planet look like? Judging by Ronan's disgusted look as the drove into the woods Hala didn’t look like Missouri at all. In Peta’s imagination it was more populated than the Midwest. She imagined a rather small planet with high gravity. There wasn't much sun, that's why Ronan and his people were so blue. Some of them were probably white, like some Earthen fish living only in the deepest caves. They all had a blueish or violet eye color. There weren't many colours on Hala, brown and black, maybe some reddish colours. There was black metal like Ronan's armour, black stones like Ronan's pod, black-skinned animals like the leather of his underclothes, and black wooled animals like his bondage diapers. But as depressing as this planet sounded, Peta would love to visit it one day. But not only Hala, also many other planets in the galaxy.

Where was Hala? Maybe she should get a star chart when they were back home and ask Ronan.

Their trip ended abruptly. In the middle of the street was a roadblock.

Peta came to stop and rolled down a window.

A man wearing black came to her car. If someone asked Peta, he looked just like an undercover agent holding up harmless travelers to keep them from visiting the alien’s space pod. Even if he was wearing an orange reflective vest.

“I'm sorry, but you can't pass, miss,” he told her as he reached the car.

“Why not?”

“The rain yesterday was particularly heavy in this part of the forest. The street’s complete washed out and several trees have fallen down. I'm sorry, but you’ll have to go another way.”

“Huh.” Peta didn't believe one word the man had said. Yesterday the street had been fine. But this was the last street she had used to get to Ronan's pod. “Which street can I use then?”

She didn't listen to his explanation. Instead, her mind wandered off, turning to thoughts about all the moments in her life where she had hoped to meet a secret government agent investigating aliens. Now that she had finally met one, she couldn't even tell him that she knew what he was.

“Miss, is your friend alright? He looks pale.”

Peta’s head turned towards Ronan. He was the same blue he always was. He just looked that way in the dimmed light.

“Yes, Ronan's fine. He's always this pale. He's Swedish, you see.” As if this would explain anything.

It was enough for the government guy, who nodded.

“Alright, thanks,” Peta said.

The man went back to his partner as Peta rolled up her window again.

“Swedish?”

“Sweden is a country here. It's way up in the north and the people there are stereotypical pale and have light blond hair.”

Ronan nodded.

Peta turned her truck around and began to drive the way the man had told her to.

“He's lying.”

“ _Kó?_ ”

“The man. We were almost at your pod and the street was just fine yesterday. It didn't rain that much. There's no way the street's impassable. The government people have found your pod and are doing God knows what with it. Probably testing and trying to reverse-engineer it.”

“ _Kó émetánt? Kó gratém retejaor? It retefanz Galuk Nik rebit._ ”

“I don't think we should have told them about you. Many people here can't even stand other humans with a different skin colour, I don't know how they would react to an alien. They'd probably imprison you and try to get you to confess your secret invasion plans.”

“ _Ko skreryo?_ ”

“Conspiracy theories. Aliens are already among us and are infiltrating us, only to bring death and destruction to Earth.”

“ _Kó?_ ”

“No idea. It's always been a fantasy of humanity that the aliens would try to extinguish humanity ever since they started writing extraterrestrial science fiction. And only the brave hero can save the day and get the girl.”

“ _Pivov._ ”

“Fact is, the less people know about you, the better. We're going back home.”

“ _Pehala..._ ”

“Maybe I can make contact with Tony Stark,” Peta mumbled. “He invented the Iron Man suit, maybe he can repair the screen. A superhero should be able to do that.”

Ronan was so lost in thought he didn't even ask who Tony Stark or this Iron Man were. They drove home quietly, both deep in their own thoughts. Ronan thought about Hala and how he would never be able to see it again. Peta thought about Hala and how to find a way for Ronan to get in contact with it.

 

***

 

Peta parked her truck in the garage when they were home again. Meredith had told her earlier that she wouldn't come home today, she was going to sleep at her boyfriend's place. She'd wanted to give Peta one last night alone in a bed before Peta had to give hers up to Alien Steve. Well, that wasn't happening anymore; Ronan was awake.

Maybe she could get him to sleep on the couch when Meredith was back. Maybe Ronan could sleep in the morning when Peta was at work and then he’d stay awake during the night.

Maybe Ronan would have no problem cuddling with Peta in her bed during the night.

She brought Ronan into the laundry room.

“It's still early. And I bet you're not tired at all since you've slept all day. Want to clean your armour?” she proposed.

“ _Ari._ ”

She helped Ronan to sit down, got a bucket of warm water and two sponges. While Ronan started to take care of his chest plate, Peta decided to take care of something else first. She put the laundry into the washing machine, including Ronan's clothes. She even went upstairs to get the laundry bucket and Ronan's wrap diapers - and his hammer which was dirty, too.

Ronan couldn't run around in her old clothes forever.

She made a mental note to go to the city on Monday and buy him some clothes, at least some underwear.

Together they sat on the floor of the laundry room, cleaning Ronan's armour until he was satisfied. It took them hours. Ronan was very fussy.

They didn't talk much. Occasionally Ronan showed her a better way how to clean the armour until it was shining. Peta was sure there was some dried, dark blood on it, but she didn't ask. There were some things she didn't want to know.

Ronan cleaned the hammer all by himself. It wasn't called a hammer. “ _Tsor Oka_ ” he had called it, but, of course, Peta didn't know if there was an English translation of “ _tsar-orca_ ” or not. Ronan had frowned deeply when she repeated the word after him.

He had tried to teach her how to say it correctly. He had leaned over to her, grabbing her cheeks and pressing them softly together so she was able to say the “ _o_ "-sounds the same way he did, but she just wasn't able to do it. She had to do something with her tongue at the same time and, even though she was normally quite good with her tongue, she just wasn't able to say it the way Ronan wanted.

Peta tried for nearly ten minutes, but it just didn't work.

It frustrated both Peta and Ronan.

It was after midnight when the armour and the hammer both were cleaned.

They went outside, Ronan using his hammer as a crutch instead of relying on Peta’s help.

He had promised earlier to show Peta what he was able to do with his hammer. Apparently, smashing heads wasn't the only thing it was capable of.

Peta brought him into the garden behind the house, looking around carefully. The neighbours were still awake, of course, but since their living rooms didn’t face the Quill’s garden they shouldn't be able to see Ronan and, in the worst case, call the police. Luckily no one had decided that it was such a nice night that they could spend it in the garden or with their doors or windows open.

Nobody noticed them as they stood on the terrace, Peta on Ronan’s left side.

Suddenly, without a warning, Ronan shot an energy blast right into the ground. Surprised Peta grabbed Ronan’s arm. Dirt flew up in the air, leaving a hole in the middle of the lawn.

“Wow… That wasn't a strong blast, was it?” Quickly Peta let go of Ronan’s arm and walked over to the hole. It was half a meter wide and deep.

“ _Ta,_ ” Ronan confirmed.

Peta looked at him. The way she saw it, when he was completely healthy, he would be able to destroy the whole town without breaking a sweat.

Ronan smiled proudly.

“Unfortunately, we now have a hole in the garden.” Peta yawned. “I'll deal with that tomorrow when my mom's back home. Come on, let's get inside.”

They went back into the house. It was too early for her to sleep, but she didn't want to show Ronan a movie, not today at least, so they sat down in the kitchen and Peta taught him how to play Mau Mau, while Ronan in return taught her how to play _Gruibkal_ , a card game played with three decks which was all about saving the Queens from getting killed by the other player’s card army.

After she had learned the basic rules - very complicated since she didn't understand most of the time what Ronan was trying to say - they played one game. Peta lost by a mile. Her Queens were all dead within the first ten rounds while she hadn't even come close to hurting Ronan’s first Queen.

This was enough, she decided. She wasn't able to protect anyone this late at night, especially not from a master of the game like Ronan. It was time for her to go to bed.

Ronan had insisted on coming with her, and they went upstairs together. He waited in her bedroom while she was in the bathroom, though.

In the bathroom she found a surprise. The bruise on her leg, the one Ronan had massaged the cream on, looked way better. It was even smaller than before and on many places, it was already starting to be yellow!

Whatever this space medicine was composed off, it was wonderful. What other kind of healing powers did they have in space?

She went back to her room, wearing only black panties and a black muscle shirt with the print “I flexed and the sleeves fell off." It had been the shirt of her ex-girlfriend, but after they broke up, Amber had told her that she could keep it since Peta loved it so much.

It was too big for her. Ronan could see more than just her sideboob when he looked at her, but honestly? She didn't care. She had already seen him completely naked. She had beautiful boobs, and at the end of the day, they were just boobs.

Ronan wasn't sitting on her bed anymore, he was sitting at her desk, trying to figure out her laptop. He had been able to start it, and was now clicking impatiently on every icon on the desktop.

“Don't rush, my laptop's slow. Especially when you want it to do so many things at once.”

Ronan growled lowly.

“It's really old, compared to your screen.”

“ _Ari._ ”

“It's two years old. So it's even old by our standards.”

Suddenly everything Ronan had clicked on opened at once. Peta sighed and took the mouse, closing most of the windows.

“You can use it during the night. Lemme explain it to you real quick.” She opened the browser. “So here you can find the Internet. That's basically-”

“ _Ari._ ”

“Yes? Yes what? You know how the Internet works?”

Ronan nodded.

“Fine. You open a new tab here, this is Google. Just type anything you need there, it usually finds the answer. Uh, does your translator work for written language, too?”

“ _Ari._ ”

“Also when you're trying to write?”

“ _Ari. Ta._ ”

“... It worked for written language the whole time and I made a fool out of myself while you could just have written everything down?”

“ _Ta. Kona satra biz. Lótétravó-_ “

“ _Ta!_ I understood! It's complicated, right? But you'll figure it out?”

Ronan nodded again.

“Fine. Well, when you've got enough of the Internet, I've got some games. They’re these here.” She hovered over them with the mouse. “Just start one at a time, you'll figure out how to play them. Just start a new game, they all have a tutorial. If not, ask Google. Er. Yeah. Last important thing is this, the explorer. There are all the files for everything. Just… don't delete anything, alright? If you want to listen to music or watch a video, here's how to change the volume. Uhm… do you need anything else?”

“ _Ta._ ”

“Fine. Then I'll go to bed now.”

Ronan turned his head away from the screen, looking at her for the first time since she came back from the bathroom.

He raised a brow when he read the quote on her shirt, his eyes wandering to her arms. He frowned. Before she was even able to react, he grabbed her upper arm, cupping it in one hand. He pressed it softly, frowning even more.

Carefully, he poked the word “fell" on her shirt.

“ _Ta._ ”

Peta had to smile. “No. They didn't _really_ fall off. It's just a funny quote. Even though I won't doubt that they'd do that if _you_ flexed. When I got the shirt it already had no sleeves.”

Ronan nodded, caressing her arm with his thumb for a short moment before he removed his hand. His eyes wandered down to the bruise on her leg. He hummed softly in approval.

“Good night, Ronan.”

“ _Repeta hal wemator._ ” Ronan coughed slightly. “Peta. Peta _hal wemator._ ”

Peta left her room and went next door into her mother's bedroom.

Ronan's eyes followed her until she was gone, before they focused on her laptop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've expected translations of the Kree language here... nah. Maybe I'll add a list when the fic's over. For now you're allowed to feel like Peta feels.


	3. The Alien Song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> almost in time for Valentine's day. Almost...

Here she was again. The tiny red headed girl who smelled like the finest spices Hala had to offer. The little girl who talked too much and too loud. The little girl who was a grown woman who avoided seeing him naked at all costs, and who still couldn't keep her eyes from him. The little girl who had saved his life and who asked for nothing in return. The little girl who didn't understand a word he said and who still tried to have conversations with him. The little girl who tried so desperately to help him get home. The little girl who was sucking up every piece of information he said, even when she didn't understand it, like a seed in the Furian desert, waiting thousand of years for one week of rain, blooming in the most beautiful colours.

It was close, the Furiali Ixis, the week of the water. Legends said, if you brought your love two petals of one of these flowers, you'd stay together for the rest of your lives.

… Why did he have to think about this right now?

Careful not to wake her, he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Peta looked peaceful in her sleep, not as stressed as when she was awake.

She had done good, rescuing him, and taking the package with her. Even though he wasn't able to use the screen to contact Hala, the medicine had helped. The swelling in his foot had gone down, and thanks to the pain medicine, he couldn't feel his broken ribs anymore. Like this, he could manage the one or two weeks it would take them to heal without further problems.

The only problem was, well, he was stuck on this backwater planet Terra. Terra, where they hadn't even invented space travel yet.

Why did his escape pod land here? What had happened to his ship and his crew? Who had dared to attack the Supreme Accuser, provoking a war with one of the biggest military forces in the whole universe?

And why was he not able to remember any of it?

Did he hit his head? His head didn't hurt and he had neither bruising nor bumps, but you could never be too sure.

It was a mystery to him.

He had searched Terran’s Internet for some piece of information, some news that would help him to figure it out, but there was nothing.

No information about Kree ships crashing on Terra. The only information he could find was that Terra had found some planet with water which could contain life (Ronan compared this with his own knowledge about inhabited planets. The newfound planet did not contain any life, at least no intelligent life), and something that might or might not have happened at some place here on Terra, called New Mexico, two years ago.

Ronan went back into Peta’s bedroom. He wrinkled his nose. He didn't like the room at all. It was too messy and too colourful. The bed was too soft and the blanket too thick. There were pictures all over the wall, some pictured weird Terran people, some were [ welcoming posters ](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/) for planets Terra wouldn't be able to visit for years if they didn't get any help with their technology.

No one would help them update their technology. It was an unwritten law throughout the galaxy not to interfere with uncivilized species as long as they couldn't make contact first.

Ronan sat down at Peta’s desk and decided to do some more research. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to find out what had happened to him, but if he had to live amongst Terrans for a while, he had to know what they were up to. The information about Terra he had learned ages ago was most certainly not up to date anymore.

 

***

 

Ronan and Peta were sitting on the living room floor when the main door of the house opened. Ronan was trying to teach Peta the basics about his language, so she could understand him.

Peta had slept longer than Ronan anticipated, so they’d had a late breakfast during which Ronan was “learning about the pleasures of television.” He did not see the pleasure of mindlessly consuming these programs. He was no big fan of theater on Hala either. He would have preferred if they had watched the news, but Peta didn't want to, so he had to eat his “best sandwich in the whole galaxy, just you see" while watching some stupid cartoon. The sandwich had been okay.

Ronan was just about to teach Peta some useful verbs, when the front door opened.

“Honey, I'm home!” a voice shouted. A female voice. Her vocal range was a bit higher than Peta’s, and unlike Peta’s, her voice didn't sound as soft as honey to Ronan.

“Hey, Mom!” Peta answered excitedly and got up. “We're in the living room.”

Ronan growled softly. He was teaching Peta his language; he didn't want any outsiders disturbing them. Not even a parent of Peta’s.

His eyes fixed on the woman in the doorframe who hugged Peta. She was smaller than her daughter, more petite. Her face was rounder and her hair shorter and fairer. It didn't have the fiery colour like Peta’s. She looked like a plain Xandarian.

Peta, on the other hand, looked right as if she came out of one of the oldest Kree legends. If Ronan were to ever describe his ideal picture of the _Glowing Princess of the Sky_ , he would describe Peta. Mostly. He just never imagined any of the gods of the Kree with _pink_ skin.

“Don't you want to introduce me?” Peta’s mother smiled. Her smile was beautiful, Ronan had to admit. Peta had certainly inherited it from her.

For a moment he wondered what Peta’s other parent was like and why there were no pictures of him to be found on the walls.

“Sure. Mom, this is Ronan. Uhm. He understands everything we say, but unfortunately we can't understand him. Even though he's trying to teach me his language.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you awake. And since my horrible daughter can't do the whole introduction, I have to do it myself.”

“I was about to…”

“My name's Meredith.”

“Meredith,” Ronan repeated and nodded. A weird name. Truly Terran. Not as meaningful as “Peta,” whose name actually had a meaning in his language. An unfortunate meaning. He had made a grave mistake because of this yesterday when he wished her goodnight.

“He woke up yesterday during dinner time.”

“That fast?”

“Yeah. His injuries weren’t too serious. And he got space medicine. But he can't leave the planet, at the moment. So, I think he should stay with us for a while. He can… do the dishes?”

What did Ronan's ability to clean have to do with anything? He had never done dishes in his life. He had slaves and servants to handle such a lowly task. Why should he do them now? Had Peta deceived him? Was she luring him into false security, only to put a collar on him and to take his freedom?

Meredith laughed. Enslaving the Supreme Accuser was funny to her?!

“He doesn't have to do the dishes.” Good! “He's our guest while he's here.” Her eyes wandered over to Ronan. They didn't have the green sparkle you could find in Peta’s eyes. “Please excuse Peta. She's just excited to have you here and wants you to stay with her. Are you married or do you have any children, Ronan?”

“Mooom!” Peta’s face grew red.

“ _No and no. I’m neither married nor did I ever father any children._ ”

“That means ‘no',” Peta translated. “The first part of the sentence, at least.”

“Why can’t we understand him? Shouldn’t we be able to do that?”

“Yeah, I think we should. But, I don’t know, either his translator broke down a bit, so it only works one way, or it just wasn’t made for working the other way round.”

“So, not as cool as in your sci fi stories?”

“Nah, this is the coolest kind. Language barrier and all this. Having to teach each other. You know?”

“Oh, I’m certain I know what you mean. Especially the “all this” part. Shall I leave you two alone?”

Peta’s face grew even redder. “Yes, please. Oh, and mom? I’m sorry about the hole in the garden. I’ll fix it tomorrow after work.”

“What hole in the garden?”

Peta smiled hestitately. “Just take a look.”

“Oh dear.” Meredith sighed and left the living room.

Peta came back to Ronan and sat down across from him. “So, where did we stop?”

Ronan smiled. Talking to Peta alone was much more pleasant than having to talk to her mother, too.

 

***

 

Meredith had taken the destroyed law quite lightly. She wasn’t too happy about it, but she didn’t take any offense, either. As Peta had said, it was just a lawn, nothing they couldn’t fix. And Peta was no child anymore, it’s not like she would fall into the hole during playtime.

Peta was having problems learning Ronan’s language. It wasn’t a complicated language in his eyes, but she just wasn’t able to distinguish the small breaks in Ronan’s voice patterns which indicated the end of a word. It worked better when Ronan talked really slow, but he wasn’t used to it, and he always forgot to talk slowly. Peta just needed practice and simple sentences. But they had time, it wasn’t like he was going anywhere soon.

Peta had told Meredith about the “shady government guys” who prevented them from going back to Ronan’s escape pod. Meredith was as shocked as Peta had been, but she didn’t know what to do about it either.

During the night, Peta slept in her own bed, while her mother slept in hers. Ronan spent the night in the living room downstairs, doing some more research and playing this funny game with the sentient plants who have to protect your home from invading zombies. He didn’t want to bother Peta and Meredith anyway by staying upstairs or insisting on taking Peta’s bed for himself, especially since they both had to work in the morning.

Meredith worked at a library while Peta worked as some kind of mechanic. This wasn’t a suitable job for a beautiful woman like Peta, Ronan thought, but he didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t have understood him anyway. If women on Hala had to work, they worked in safe, secure places where they couldn’t be harmed. Just like Meredith. A woman's body was too important a part of his society to be exposed to dangerous activities.

But Peta was no Kree. Terrans had their own rules. Kree rules did not apply to her, he knew. Otherwise he would never have seen her with exposed legs. Otherwise she would never behave the way she did around Ronan. Otherwise she would probably already have found a suitable husband or two.

 

***

 

Monday and Tuesday passed in unspectacular fashion. Ronan stayed at the Quill’s home during the morning, getting the sleep he hadn’t gotten during the night. When Peta came home, he continued to teach her his words. They fixed the garden. Ronan got to wear the new clothes Peta had bought for him on her way home. He didn’t like Terran clothes. The fabric was too rough compared to Kree fabric. It felt uncomfortable on his skin. Especially their weird underwear. In the evening, Meredith made them some lovely dinner. After this Peta told Ronan more about Terra and its people until she finally went to bed.

 

***

 

On Wednesday morning, Peta made Ronan wear a hoodie again. This time it was a red one with blue arms with a white star pattern and a weird yellow symbol on the front: two winged waves on top of each other. Her mother had told her something in private, and Peta and Ronan needed to take a look into it, she had explained as they seated themselves in Peta’s truck.

It was a mystery to him why he had to come with her. What did she need Ronan for? He knew nothing about Terra, and he was a warrior. Here was nothing for him.

They listened to Peta’s weird music during their drive. Ronan had started to listen closely to the lyrics of these sung poems, but he found no standard. Some of them were about love, some were about religion, some were just weird and he had no idea what they were about. An example of the last kind of song was by a music group full of royals who sang some sort of _Bohemian_ song. Peta loved this song and drummed enthusiastically on her wheel while it played.

She stopped her truck in front of a “Dairy Queen.”

Ronan made sure one last time that the hoodie was on his head, before he got out of the truck.

Peta was already waiting eagerly.

Under her red leather jacket, she wore a short, light grey dress today. No proper woman of Hala would ever wear something this revealing..! But this wasn't Hala. This was Terra, and he had to live by Terran rules.

At least her legs weren't naked this time, unlike every evening. She had beautiful legs, he had to admit, maybe they were a bit short (everything about her was short. She was no match to anyone at Hala, especially not as tall as the Kree women who were even taller than the men.), but Ronan liked her legs nonetheless. Today she was wearing red tights, matching the red colour of her leather jacket.

She wore her long, wild hair in a ponytail.

His eyes wandered over to the “Dairy Queen." It seemed to be some kind of restaurant for poor people. “ _Are you hungry?_ ” he asked.

“No need to eye it right now. We have business in the woods here. I can get you some frozen water sauce when we're finished.”

“Frozen water sauce?”

“You don't even have frozen water sauce on Hala? Poor thing. I'm totally going to get you some. But now, come.” Peta turned around and made her way to the woods.

Ronan followed her closely.

“I don't know _exactly_ where we have to go. Mom explained the way to me. She comes here every year, she said, so her instructions should be quite clear. Shame, she didn't want to come with us today. First we have to walk straight for a while,” Peta chuckled as if she had just made some really funny joke, “until we get down a little hill. Then we have to find an old, fallen oak next to some bushes. From there we have to go left until we get to a really small clearing surrounded by bushes, so small we won't even realize it's a clearing until we're on it. And there it is.”

“ _There is_ what _?_ ”

“A flower of my dad.”

“ _A what?_ ”

Peta shrugged. “I know it sounds weird. And I don't even know what it means. But she said I should take you there. Maybe you’ll know what it is. So keep your eyes open, ok?”

Ronan nodded. “ _What's an_ oak _?_ ” He had repeated the word “oak" in Peta’s language.

“Oh. It's a tree. Got wavy leaves.”

Ronan growled lowly. He still had no idea what he was supposed to look for, but he saw the ground sinking down in front of them. They had found their first landmark - the hill.

They wandered straightforward, just as Peta had told him. At one point Peta tripped over a tree trunk and fell almost down, but Ronan's reflexes were fast enough to grab her around the waist and keep her from falling. They had to take a short break because Peta just couldn't get over the fact that she wasn't even able to walk straight.

Ronan didn't understand the joke. Maybe it was a joke that got lost in translation.

But at least they had found the oak.

They turned left and continued to walk.

They actually found the small clearing. Almost hidden among dead leaves was a sprout. They both crouched down next to it. The sprout was a few inches tall, and looked completely alien to Ronan. But not only that, it also looked like nothing Ronan had seen here on Terra either. It had a blue, glowing core, lying on a red perforated shell, not protected at all. It was lying on long, sharp needle-like blueish-green leaves, and was surrounded by another soft perforated leaf-like shell. It was beautiful on it’s own, but it stood out too much. It was like a Kree among Xandarians.

“ _What is it?_ ” Ronan asked softly. He didn’t dare touch it.

“I don’t know,” Peta answered. She swept away the leaves from around the weird plant. Under the earth were heavy, blue growing roots, softly shining through the dirt above it. They reminded Ronan of veins. “My mom said my dad showed this to her. Apparently he planted it down here, but even she doesn’t know why. She says-” Peta hesitated and looked at Ronan. “She says that my father was an alien. She asked me to bring you here, because maybe you know something about this plant or have seen any kind of plant like this before, to identify it. And him. Because, well, not because she wants to see him again, she says she’s long over him, and she’s had her boyfriend for years now. But because I deserve to know what I am. Well, what half of me is made of.” Peta looked back at the plant and gave it a soft poke. “It feels weird. Too rogue.”

“ _You’re not Terran?_ ”

“Apparently not completely. Surprise.”

“ _I haven’t seen a plant like this anywhere._ ” He pointed at the sprout and repeated the word he had just used.

Peta nodded. “I see.” Her eyes darkened. “I want to pull it out. But it really looks like the roots go down too deep. And if this plant survived the last 20 years without getting real light, I think pulling it out won’t help. It’ll grow back. It’s like weed. Maybe we should...” She stopped talking there, getting lost in her own feelings.

Ronan stood up. “ _Peta._ ” He held a hand down to her. “ _Let’s go back._ ”

“No idea what you’re saying, Ro,” she mumbled but grabbed his hand. He pulled her back onto her feet.

Together they went back to the “Dairy Queen.” They were still holding hands when they made it back to the parking lot. Peta just didn’t want to let his hand go. Ronan didn’t mind.

“Now, your frozen water sauce.” Peta pulled her keys out of her pocket and gave them to Ronan. “Sit down and wait for me. Don’t drive away!” She gave his hand a last squeeze before she had to let it go and disappeared into the building.

Ronan went to the car and waited. His thoughts wandered back to the plant. He should come back here, next time with his Cosmi-Rod. He could destroy the plant and every last root of it. Peta would certainly feel better about this. Peta who was not a complete Terran. Ronan didn’t know what to do with this piece of information. Certainly, it would probably explain some things for her, but for him? Nothing changed. Peta was still the same Peta to him as she’d been before.

Peta came back with two cups of frozen water sauce. Chocolate flavour. Ronan tried his portion - and he didn’t like it. It was too sweet. He gave it back to Peta who happily ate both portions. The flower and Peta’s strange heritage seemed forgotten.

 

***

 

When she got back from work on Thursday evening, Peta shoved her phone right at Ronan’s face. “Look at this!” She was so enthusiastic about whatever was on her phone, she came straight from her truck to Ronan. She hadn’t even bothered to take off her shoes.

“ _What?_ ” Gently he pushed her hand away a bit. He wasn’t able to see anything like this. The phone was just too close.

“Sorry.” Peta sat down next to Ronan on the couch. Ronan closed the laptop and put it on his free side. “I’m just excited. You’re not the only alien here! If the video’s authentic. You tell me! You’re the space expert here.” With a simple push on the screen Peta started a video.

It was clearly not a professional-made video. It was dark outside and the backs of people’s head were right in front of the camera. A darkly dressed man with a helmet crowned with golden horns was walking through the crowd. “-you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel,” he said. Ronan knew him. This was one of the princes of Asgard.

Another man could be heard talking. He wasn’t seen in the video. “Not to men like you.”

“There are no men like me,” Asgard’s prince said.

“There are always men like you,” the second man replied.

“Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example.” The camera turned around a bit. The prince of Asgard, Ronan had forgotten his name, shot a blue energy beam out of the staff he was holding at the man. But the beam was reflected back by another man wearing all blue who had just jumped into the way. The prince of Asgard fell to his knees.

“That’s Captain America!” Peta whispered excited. “We’ve got an old autograph by him!”

This Captain America started to talk and walk towards the Asgardian. “You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.”

People in the crowd started to stand up, so did the person holding the camera. But the prince also stood up again.

“The soldier. A man out of time.”

“I'm not the one who's out of time.”

“Loki, drop the weapon and stand down,” a female voice said. Loki! That was his name! Loki of Asgard!

Loki shot his staff again, the video didn’t show where or if he hit his target. By the lack of noise following, Ronan assumed he didn’t hit anything.

Captain America threw his shield at Loki.

People started to run.

The video ended.

“ _What was this?_ ” Ronan asked.

“I have no idea,” Peta replied. “It’s called ‘Superhero and Alien (?) in Stuttgart’ on youtube.”

“ _Loki of Asgard…_ ”

“Oh, you know this guy?”

“ _Yes._ ”

“He’s an alien, too?”

“ _Yes._ ”

“Maybe we can find out what happened to him! Maybe we can contact him and get him to take you home! Even though he clearly seems like a bad guy… Well, maybe we can contact whoever Captain America is working for and tell _them_ to make him send you home!”

“ _Yes, maybe…_ ” Ronan didn’t want this to happen. Yes, he wanted to go back home, but he didn’t want to part ways with Peta yet. Peta didn’t seem affected by the idea of sending Ronan off at all. She was typing on her phone enthusiastically, eager to find out what had happened to Loki. Ready to leave Ronan.

She wasn’t able to find out what happened to Loki. Instead she used the afternoon to tell Ronan all about this Captain America and what he had done in the Second World War, and how her grand-aunt had acquired a real autograph by him. Ronan liked this almost less than the thought of Peta leaving him. Almost.

He just wanted to spend time with her and teach her his language. He didn’t want to hear about other men.

 

***

 

They were playing Gruibkal on Friday afternoon when Peta’s phone started to beep ten times in a row. Peta was getting better with every game. Her strategy got better. Ronan actually started to need to make an effort to win the games.

Annoyed, Peta checked her phone. “Oh!”

“ _What?_ ”

Peta didn’t answer. Instead she crawled over to the TV, turning it on. She switched to a news sender.

There was a battle going on. Ronan’s eyes automatically flew from Peta to the gun noises. There were screaming people all over the screen before the camera view wandered up to the sky. Several non-terran vehicles flew through the picture.

Ronan narrowed his eyes. “ _Chitauri._ ” If he saw it right. He could have seen wrong. What were Chitauri doing on Terra? Was this Loki’s doing?

They followed the events on the TV quietly. Finally, Peta opened her mouth. “Grab your hammer, we need to get you to New York.”

Ronan nodded in agreement. Either Loki and the Chitauri would win, and in this case Ronan would ask - or threaten - Loki to contact his people, or they would lose, in which case Ronan would use the scraps of the vehicles and their armor to fix his own screen and contact his people.

It didn’t take them long to get dressed, grab the most important stuff, and make their way in Peta’s truck to New York City.

The only problem was that according to Peta’s phone it would take them fifteen hours to arrive - without breaks.


	4. The Love Song

Peta had realized two things: Google was lying and Ronan was able to drive a car. Ronan being able to drive hadn't been such a bad thing. Like this they could share their driving duty and Peta could sleep for a while. Google lying was worse. They didn't need ten hours to get to New York. They actually needed 18 hours. They could have made it in 12 hours, but they would have arrived in the middle of the night. So Ronan, who didn’t want to wake Peta up before she was completely rested, drove slower. And he took a two hour nap in New Jersey in a small sidestreet without the sleeping Peta noticing.

Traffic was the worst. Especially in a case when you thought that everyone was getting away from New York because they didn't want to be the victims of an alien attack. But no, everyone was driving to New York because of said alien attack! Peta and Ronan weren't the only ones who wanted to meet these strange space people. 

To meet even more strange space people, in Peta’s case. 

To have a small chance to get home, in Ronan's case.

Ronan was wearing one of Peta’s big, black, oversized sweaters over his normal clothes, and dark sunglasses. The perfect disguise. No one would ever find out that he was an alien and if someone would ask about his blue skin, they would just blame it on the light. He wasn't wearing his armour, though. They had discussed it, as far as this was possible, and put it in the truck bed, hidden under a blanket. Even the hammer was in the truck bed. Ronan had tried to insist that it was going to be in the cab with them, but after an hour on the highway, he saw the point in Peta’s arguments and put it in the back.

During their little road trip, they had kept an eye on the news on Peta’s phone. If there was going to be another attack, somewhere closer, they would go there first instead of New York City. But no. The Chitauri weren't that smart, apparently, and had all stayed in one place for the whole time. And they all died in one place simultaneously. 

Ronan would have told Peta all about their hive mind and their usual attack patterns if he’d been able to.

The Chitauri staying all in New York City had been a good conversational gambit for Peta to tell Ronan all about alien invasion movies, and the stupidness of made up aliens.

Ronan listened closely. Maybe movies weren't one of his main interests, but potential invasion scenarios and strategies to prevent them were, especially with stronger foes.

He listened very closely when Peta presented her own plan on how she would invade Terra. It was a very bad plan, and, if she should ever succeed, it would all be due to pure luck. Peta was very aware of this. There was no way she would ever invade a planet, even if she was going to space. She wasn't the type for that. She'd rather save a planet with a bold plan.

Ronan smiled upon hearing this. Unfortunately, life wasn't as idealistic as Peta naively painted it, not even “in space” as she called it. It was politics out there, not fun and adventure. 

Peta didn't care. A girl needs to dream, she told Ronan. Or else life will be boring. 

He didn't agree. Dreams were for children. Life was no fairytale. He tried to express this with words, he tried his best to make clear to Peta what he meant, but she didn't understand. 

She continued to live on in her little bubble of unrealistic dreams and hopes. 

They arrived at New York City in the early morning, but it took more time to actually get into the city. They had to park outside, Ronan's armour moved from the bed to the cab so no one would be able to steal it. Ronan wasn't going to wear it now, Peta had decided. Too noticeable. They did take the hammer, though. Ronan insisted on that as a precaution.

Because of the recent alien panic, they had to walk. Subways and taxis weren't operating yet. 

Peta hated it. Walking was the worst.

Ronan thought it was okay. 

They held hands most of the time. Simply for the purpose of not losing each other, of course. There was no other purpose.

There was one problem, though: the people had already raided most of the Chitauri corpses. Not even 12 hours had passed since the attack, and yet there was almost no technology left on the corpses or any alien vehicles left untouched.

How was this possible?

Peta cursed more than once.

Ronan didn’t say anything, but pouted.

They decided that there was a chance there was still a corpse in the park, hidden in one of the bushes. 

They made their way to Central Park. It was big enough for someone not to have seen a dead Chitauri.

They searched for what felt like hours. It was already evening by the time Ronan found an undiscovered Chitauri. Quickly, he called Peta who was already on to the next set of bushes. 

She came back to him. “Oh! You found one! Can you use him?”

“ _ Ari. _ ” Yes. “ _ Rem ariin dómut. _ ”

“I think you need your screen,” Peta said and opened her bag. She had put Ronan's things inside and also some tools he had asked her to bring. She handed him both the tools and the screen. “Do I have to do guard duty now so no one sees you handling your alien stuff?”

Ronan looked at her and frowned. In his eyes this was absolutely not necessary and Peta’s question had been pointless. He shook his head. “ _ Frer í retor wezehagur. It wurbainer. _ ” 

“What?”

He pointed at the ground next to him.

Peta sat down. 

Ronan had already pulled the corpse out of the bushes. He started to work immediately, closely watched by Peta.

They had luck. The Chitauri was still attached to most of his flying vehicle and Ronan got all the pieces he needed. He was pleased. 

But he never got to fix his screen in this park and contact his people. 

Before he was able to fix it, a man landed next to them. Ronan had seen him before, he was one of the heroes of the battle, the Iron Man! 

Instinctively, Ronan let go of the remains of the Chitauri and his screen. He grabbed Peta and his hammer, and jumped to his feet, pushing her behind him to protect her.

Ronan's reaction had been too fast. Peta was only able to process what had happened when she was already standing behind him.

She glanced around from behind his back. Her eyes widened. This was Iron Man.  _ The _ Iron Man himself! Tony Stark!

“Haven't you two been listening to the news?” Iron Man asked in his metallic voice. “The government has forbidden anyone to touch the remains of the aliens, their vehicles, or their weapons. Only your brooms are allowed to touch them.”

“Yeah, but it's not like anyone listened, did they? We've searched the whole day just for this one here.”

“I appreciate your effort and stubbornness, but it's still illegal.”

“I don't care if it's illegal. Ronan needs the Chitauri technology to get home.” She put a hand on Ronan's arm to calm him down and moved next to him.“You see, we-"

“You shouldn't know the name of the aliens. Why? J.A.R.V.I.S.?” He was quiet for a short moment. “Oh, I see.” Iron Man pointed an open hand at Ronan. The blaster in his suit was humming lowly and ready to fire at any moment.

Ronan growled softly.

This time Peta reacted instinctively and jumped in front of Ronan. “You will not shoot him!”

“And why would that be, Red?”

“Because he has nothing to do with the whole situation and just wants to get home.”

Iron Man looked at her silently. The suit looked at her silently, at least. You never knew what the man inside the suit was doing. Maybe he was rolling his eyes and sticking his tongue out.

“Why can't he get home?” Iron Man asked.

“ _ Simbi Krede vovurtehaguz. _ ”

“Because both his communication device and his ship are broken. As has his translator,” Peta answered for Ronan. “He's already been stuck here for a week and we thought that we could use the stuff from the Chitauri to repair his stuff. Well, not his ship, we lost this for good since some government people have gotten their hands on it. But his communication device at least. The other option would have been for us to go to Loki and ask him to get Ronan back home or at least contact his people. Our third option would've been to ask that good-looking, muscular hammer guy. Ronan said he's an alien, too, so…”

“Thor,” Ronan threw in.

“Yes, I know, Thor, thanks. Anyways, we didn't know where to find Thor since the battle has ended. Maybe he's at the remains of your tower, but we couldn't just walk in there, asking to see Thor. They would laugh in our faces, even if Ronan's blue.”

“Wow. That's quite a lot to process.” Iron Man opened his headpiece. Even with the protective armour, his face was scratched. That was only natural, Peta thought. After all, he had fallen down through a hole in space. “Do you always talk that much?”

“ _ Ari, _ ” answered Ronan, and nodded darkly.

“That means ‘yes,’” Peta translated.

“I got that even without help. So, your alien boyfriend has been here a week? Hm. I think I might have read something about an object of unknown origin in the S.H.I.E.L.D. files. Wasn't it in Mississippi? Ah, no, Missouri, thank you, J.A.R.V.I.S..”

Ronan leaned down to Peta’s ear. “J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“His A.I. or something like this, if I remember right,” she whispered back.

“I should probably get you to the others. Thor’s still on Earth. He wants to leave tomorrow morning.” 

“And Ronan’s stuff?”

“No touching the Chitauri. Not even for someone like Ronan, I believe. You can try to fix his tech in my lab. It’s still in a good condition. You only have to let me take a look over your shoulder, of course.”

Peta laughed softly. “I’m not sure if you’ve got the things Ronan needs to fix it.” 

Iron Man looked really offended. “I’m the most advanced man on the planet, what else can he need?”

“Space stuff.”

“Okay, sweetheart. Get a taxi to my tower.”

“Uh. Are they driving again?” 

“I think so. At least I’ve seen some on my way here. Just go to my tower, I’ll reimburse you.” Iron Man closed his visor again. “Do I have to drag you to the street or do you promise not to touch the corpse?”

She rolled her eyes. “We won’t touch it anymore. Not even with our brooms. Promise.” 

“Good girl. What’s your name so I can announce you?” 

“It’s Peta Quill.”

“I’m Tony Stark.”

Peta smiled. “I know.”

 

***

 

Peta Quill was standing in the same room as Captain America. She felt like she could faint at any given moment.

Ronan was standing in the same room as Captain America. He hated every second because Peta looked like she just met her long time crush.

Tony Stark was just explaining Ronan’s situation to Thor. Tony Stark talked about a situation Peta was involved in. To a blonde alien god who had more muscles than almost any other man she had ever met. Peta was so hyped!

Ronan and Peta were standing next to them, Ronan joining the conversation from time to time. Apparently Thor was able to understand Ronan. Oh, how Peta envied him for that. What she would give for a normal conversation with Ronan!

Her eyes were still fixated on Captain America.

He winked at her.

Quickly, Peta looked the other way, to Thor and Tony. Her cheeks had gotten really warm.

“Unfortunately, I can’t take you to Asgard. The Bifrost is broken, thanks to my brother, and it’s uncertain when it will be repaired,” Thor said to Ronan. “My brother and I will travel with the Tesseract. The protective shell we have for it, is, unfortunately, only big enough to transport two people. But my father’s men are certainly able to contact your people.”

“ _ Biz domut. _ ”

“You’re welcome. You’d have no measure of telling when or if my father contacts your people, though. I think Heimdall is already telling my father. But I don't know for sure.”

“ _ Hal bit. Grapeta anot. _ ”

Peta was sure she had heard her name. “What's with me?” 

The men ignored her.

Thor smiled. “You two seem close.”

“ _ Tebít. Ano anamrasir í gratém teglagumanot. _ ”

“Are you sure? You're even dressed the same way.”

Peta looked down at herself. Thor was right. Unconsciously, she had dressed the same as Ronan, all in black with heavy boots, a sweater and dark sunglasses.

Ronan's face darkened. “ _ Ari. Rem Kree treerezudómut plaloz. _ ”

“Does she know?”

“Do I know what?”

Ronan looked at her. There was a certain sadness in his eyes Peta hadn't seen before. “ _ Wetevor. Petapetapunz.” _

“It doesn't matter, Ro-Nan says. You don't have to worry.”

“I’m not worried, why should I be?” she asked.

“Well, even better.” Thor smiled. Was he the God of Thunder or the God of Sunshine Smiles?

Ronan was still looking at Peta. “ _ Davertoz Simbi Krede wevor. Vovurtepict. Í greremmetanr Peta wevor.” _

_ “ _ Ro-Nan says that he wants to use your workshop now, Stark. And he asks you, Peta, to accompany him,” Thor translated. Oh, it was so much easier with someone around who could translate.

“Yeah, sure,” both Peta and Tony said.

“ _ Thor kanavurhabolvot.” _

“What is it?”

“ _ Peta teterrahacdebiz.” _

“Oh.”

“ _ Ká razodpam graterra teterraadkréz? Krede biz. wrotutehakomhacdez.” _

_ “ _ Hm. I'll see. I'm going to ask when I'm back home.”

“ _ Sor. Ká Peta metanr?” _

_ Are you coming? _ She had understood these words.

“Sure.”

Ronan and Peta went to the elevator, waiting for Tony who was trying to convince Thor to tell him what exactly Ronan had said. Thor declined.

Grumpy, Tony followed them to the elevator. They went down to Tony’s labs.

“What happened to Loki?” Peta asked. She hadn't seen him around.

“Oh, we're keeping him in a separate room where he can't do any harm. Thor insisted. J.A.R.V.I.S. is keeping an eye on him. According to Thor, he shouldn't even be able to do his magic.  _ Magic _ . Can you believe it? Magic really exists! If he'd only stay longer..!”

“Well, so do aliens. Hammer-wielding aliens. So yes, I can believe it.” She looked at Ronan. “What is it with you muscle men and hammers?”

Ronan smiled and shrugged. “ _ Kó terrabiz í horumglabiz? _ ”

Of course, these words were lost on Peta. “Maybe we should have brought Thor with us.”

“ _ Ari, it. Ona zem rezebvot. Zem vot adkretehaguz. _ ”

“Here we are!” Tony exclaimed and opened the elevator door. “Welcome to the place where the magic happens!”

“Oh, you brought us to your bedroom? Naughty, naughty.”

Tony laughed. “You're good, Red.”

Peta grinned. 

Ronan didn't find it funny. He left the elevator without comment. 

“Ah, your smurf doesn't like when he has to think about you in other people's bedrooms. I see the first sparks of jealousy in your little romance,” Tony said to Peta.

She lowered her voice. “We have no romance.”

“Why are you whispering? Do you fear he’ll hear that you have no romance? Don't want to disappoint him?”

“No, it's not like that.”

“Do you want a romance?”

“... It doesn't matter. Within the week he'll be gone and I'll never see him again.” And her life would go on: normal and boring. No more adventures, no more aliens, no more superheroes. Just a normal life for a normal 19-year-old girl from a small town. 

“So what? Aren't you children all over monsters and aliens these days?”

“What?”

“A single night with him is better than no night, believe me. Do you want to regret your whole life that you missed this chance?”

“No, I-”

“Then take your chance before it's over.”

Peta nodded softly. 

“Listen to Uncle Tony.”

“Yeah. Maybe. We'll see.” Quickly, she left the elevator, going after Ronan. He was already inspecting Tony’s things, frowning deeply. “How is it? Can you work with it?”

“ _ Ari,” _ Ronan confirmed. “ _ Toludbiz. Konatoludzewurbiz.” _

_ “ _ Good.” She had only understood half of it, but as long as Ronan knew what he was doing… “Here, you'll need this.” She got the screen and the pieces Ronan had removed from the Chitauri out of her bag.

Tony sucked in the air. “Didn't I tell you not to touch it anymore?”

“Oh, we didn't. We just brought whatever we had already taken.”

“I think that still counts. You can be glad I don't tattle to S.H.I.E.L.D..”

“Thanks, Tony.”

“So, how does it work with your technology?” 

Ronan rolled his eyes. This Tony Stark was even more annoying than Peta. He knew that he wouldn't be able to understand what Ronan said! Daily conversation was one thing, but technical details were another. He still tried to explain, using simple words and concepts to explain every little detail. 

But Tony Stark was quite a smart man. He understood most of Ronan's explanations, unlike Peta, even if he wasn't able to grasp the basic concepts of the grammar, yet, unlike Peta.

Ronan not only used some of the Chitauri things, but also quite a lot of stuff from Tony’s lab. In the end, after he basically repaired the whole hardware, Ronan started the screen.

It lit up!

It started up.

It loaded.

It continued to load.

Ronan started to grow impatient.

It was still loading...

And it didn't die!

After some really anxious minutes, it had finally loaded the home menu!

“ _ Modre, _ ” said Ronan.

“Hm?” Peta looked up from her phone. She didn't like waiting and staring at the screen the whole time was boring, so she had gotten out her phone instead. Her mom had left her too many troubled messages and Peta had to answer them. Mothers.

“ _ Wetor. _ ” Look. Ronan nodded towards the screen.

“Oh!” Peta came closer. “And now? Are you going to contact your people now?”

“ _ Ta _ .”

“So, it finally works? Nice. I didn't think you'd make it,” Tony said. “I thought you had to rebuild the whole thing.”

Ronan shot him an angry glare before he started to push some buttons.

“So, what are you doing if not contacting your people?”

“I never said I'm not going to contact them. I was just saying that I didn't plan to do it first,” Ronan answered.

“Then what are you- Oh.” She could understand Ronan. Ronan had activated a translation program! She finally understood what he was saying. Peta smiled widely.

“Stark.”

“Finally done ignoring me? What do you need?” Tony asked. He took the whole thing way cooler than Peta. 

“Can you leave the laboratory? This is nothing an outsider should hear.”

“Peta’s an outsider, too.” Tony tried to argue.

“Peta’s special.” Ronan stated coldly.

“I am?” Peta asked.

“I see.” Tony grinned. “Take your time. I'm going upstairs.” He winked at Peta. “See you later.” Tony turned around and went to the elevator.

Ronan's eyes followed him, only wandering back to Peta when the elevator door had closed behind Tony.

“I-" Peta started.

“You are an idiot, Peta Quill.”

“What…” This was not what she had expected Ronan to say.

“If you find an object of unknown origin with a person in it, you don't take them home, and nurse them up yourself. You call the appropriate authorities and let them handle it. What if I had been dangerous?”

“But you aren't…”

“That was your luck. Promise me you’ll call the authorities next time.”

“Hmpf.”

“Peta.”

“Fine, I promise.” She hadn't expected Ronan to be like this. Wasn't he supposed to be nicer to her? Wasn't he supposed to be the alien who'd fall in love with her? “Sorry, I won't save your life next time.”

Ronan came closer to her. He took her head between his strong hands and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead. His lips were cold against her skin. 

Peta felt her face grow warmer and warmer. She bet if she looked in a mirror, it would be at least as red as her hair right now.

“Thank you for taking me in and nursing me back to health, Peta.”

“You're welcome,” she mumbled quietly, not sure if Ronan could hear her.

“I owe you my freedom.”

“You actually don't owe me anything.”

“I do. Maybe it isn't custom upon you Terrans, but it is upon my people, the Kree.”

Peta closed her eyes, taking in the strong scent of Ronan's skin. “Take me with you to space.”

“I can't do this. You belong to this planet. You belong to your people, the people who love you.”

She opened her eyes and met Ronan's. They were full of a fear she hadn't seen before. “Only half of my family is on this planet. You've heard it yourself. My dad wanted to get me, but he never came. I want to find out why. And I think…” She stopped.

“You think..?”

“I think it might not only be people on this planet who love me. I think there might be a chance that something has happened to a certain Kree.”

Ronan pushed his lower lip forward. “That's ridiculous!”

“Is it?”

“Yes! No Kree is allowed to marry an outsider!”

“Well, I didn't ask you to  _ marry _ me right away.”

“It's still impossible. Kree fall in love only once in their lives, and only with other Kree.”

“Oh. So when you'd fall for me..?”

“Which won't happen.”

“Which won't happen, of course,” she repeated. “You'd want me to stay at your side forever, but that's not allowed.”

“Yes,” Ronan confirmed.

“But you do have a certain sympathy towards me.”

“Ridiculous, again. I'm the Supreme Accuser. I don't do sympathy.”

“Then why did you protect me from Tony?”

“. . .” 

“Well, I do have a certain sympathy towards you, Ronan.”

“I don't care,” Ronan mumbled. Everything in his body language, everything in his face, everything in his eyes, everything screamed that he did care. Ronan the Supreme Accuser, whatever the hell a Supreme Accuser was, wanted Peta to like him, and he liked her back. It was so obvious, even a blind man could see it! But Ronan still tried to deny it.

“Please don't kill me for what I'm about to do.”

“I would never hurt you.”

“Except by breaking my heart.”

“. . .”

Carefully, giving Ronan every opportunity to back out, Peta grabbed Ronan's face and pulled him down into a kiss.

Ronan's lips were still cold, but Peta didn't mind. It was the sweetest kiss she gave Ronan. 

He hesitated at first. But soon he gave in. He realized that there was no way that denial would help him. He wanted Peta. Every little cell in his body was electrified by even the smallest and most innocent touch. And this kiss, this sweet and innocent kiss, opened a door in him, a door that showed him the way to his heart's greatest desire. And this desire was standing right in front of him, lips pressed against his, looking more beautiful than ever.

“I still can't take you with me to Hala,” he said quietly. 

“Then don't. Take me somewhere else.”

“And tell me, Mistress of Ill-Conceived Plans, how will I explain this to the men who will come to get me?”

“Don't. I can wait. Get me the next time.”

“What?”

“Go home, stay for a while, get a ship, come here and take me with you.”

“...” 

“No?”

“...” 

“Okay, bad plan.” 

“Yes, it’s a bad plan.”

“Maybe you should call your planet now.” 

“I have to switch off the translator for that.” 

Peta smiled. “That’s alright. You can switch it back on afterwards.”

Ronan gave Peta another, really quick kiss, before he switched off the translator. 

“I better get a bit away from you, okay? So you can talk to your men without them seeing a weird Terran.” 

He nodded and started the call.

Peta moved away from him. It was so confusing. Ronan certainly felt something for her. She had known it for a few days now. It had just happened. And yet, he denied everything because he wasn't allowed to love her. What kind of life was that? Not being able to love someone just because they had the wrong skin colour?

Oh.

Okay, this problem wasn't unknown here on Earth.

She really hoped that Ronan would overcome his xenophobic education and decide to listen to his heart.

It certainly would break hers if he didn't.

She wanted to continue to hold hands with Ronan wherever they went. She wanted to continue to spend the evenings with him. She wanted to kiss him again.

Even the thought of never seeing Ronan again after this weekend made her feel sick to her stomach. 

Quickly, she brushed her hand over her eyes. Tears had started to leak out of her eyes. She didn't want Ronan to see her cry. He didn't need to see that. He would probably just feel guilty for making her cry.

She glanced over to Ronan. He hadn't noticed it. He was deeply in conversation with another Kree. This one was just as bald as Ronan and had black markings all over his face. She made a mental notice to ask Ronan what the markings were for. 

The words flew out out of Ronan's mouth so fast, Peta wasn't even able to grasp the ground pillars of his language he had taught her. It must really have been a pain in the ass for him to speak so slow to be understood so little.

It was really fascinating.

His conversation with the other Kree lasted several minutes. They looked like they had a serious discussion. But eventually, Ronan closed the calling window, and opened the translator again.

“Asgard has already told them that I'm on Terra,” Ronan explained. “They've prepared and sent a ship to bring me home. They will be here within the day.”

“Oh. I see…” So she would lose Ronan sooner than expected. And he would never come back for her.

“Apparently, I was on a mission when my ship got attacked. I'm the sole survivor.”

“Apparently?”

“I’m unable to recall the events myself. Must have hit my head during my escape in the pod.”

“What kind of mission was it?”

“I shouldn't tell you.” He told her anyways. “My people have heard of an old and powerful weapon which had been contained on a long abandoned planet. I was to get it. I don't know, though, if I got it, if it simply wasn't there, or if the attackers stole it.”

“A weapon.”

Ronan shrugged.

A weapon. Was it the ball? So Peta had been right. It was better if Ronan never found the ball. If Ronan's people had asked Ronan to get it, they probably intended to use it. As much as she loved Ronan, if you could already speak of love, she didn't approve of anyone using weapons. She would keep the ball for herself, for now. At least until she knew what the Kree wanted to do with it.

“Do you want to stay here or do you want to go back to the Avengers?” He spit out the last word. Seems like he didn't like them that much.

“Let's go back,” Peta said regardlessly.

Ronan growled lowly, but gave Peta the screen to put in her bag. The leftover Chitauri tools Ronan hadn't needed were left on Tony’s table.

He grabbed her hand, and together they went back to the elevator.

Neither one of them pressed the button to bring them upstairs to the Avengers.

Instead, they found each others eyes, both knowing what to do. 

Maybe a bit too forceful, Ronan pressed Peta against the wall of the elevator, kissing her with everything he had to offer, but Peta didn't mind. Ronan kissing her was the only thing that mattered right now. 

They only separated when Peta was out of breath, only to ask J.A.R.V.I.S. where to find the private rooms Tony had promised them. As soon as the elevator started to move, they kissed again.

As fast as they could, they made their way to one of the bedrooms. They only had one day and they wanted to use it as much as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are probably 100 grammar mistakes in the spoken Kree in this and I totally need to take another look at it, but I'm too lazy. Translating in made up languages is hard


	5. The Home Song

Sex with an alien was really weird, especially when the genitalia of the alien didn't look like human genitalia. But it was really good and highly enjoyable, even if it had been kind of awkward. But sex was always kind of awkward, especially for the first time together. Life was no porn nor smut fanfic.

That was all Peta had to say to this.

The details were no one's business.

J.A.R.V.I.S. called them when dinner was ready. Tony had ordered pizza.

Peta didn't want to go.

As soon as they left the room, their little bubble of happiness would burst and real life would catch up.

Peta buried her face in the crook of Ronan's neck.

Gently, Ronan stroked her hair. It stood up in all ways and looked more wild than he had ever seen it before. “We should go,” he whispered.

“No. Don't make me leave the bed.”

“You have to, eventually. You're getting hungry.”

“I'm never going hungry ever again. I'll live off air and love alone.”

Peta’s stomach didn't like the thought of never getting anything ever again, though, especially when pizza was served. It let out a deep and angry groan.

Peta sighed.

“It seems to me that your body's in disagreement.” Ronan laughed softly.

“Traitor,” she mumbled and looked up.

Ronan's eyes looked directly into hers. They were so full of love and care. Peta couldn't believe that this man was going to leave her soon.

She didn't want this. She wanted him to stay forever. It was the first time in her life that she felt so comfortable around someone. Everything they did together just felt so natural, every little touch electrified her whole body. She was sure they could do everything together if they wanted… and it was all going to end now?

She didn't want this.

She’d never wanted anything less in her life. And yet…

Ronan pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Stand up, love.”

“Don't do this to me, Ro.”

“Make you leave the bed?”

_ No, the other thing. Calling me “love" with such an affectionate smile on your face. I would try to move the world for you, and yet you’re going to leave me,  _ she thought, but she didn't say it out loud. Instead, she just said, “Yes, this.”

“Do I have to push you?”

“Do you want me to get bruises?”

“Even more? No.”

“Let's take a shower. Together.”

Ronan frowned.

“What? This is another thing you don't do on Hala?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“It saves water.”

“I don’t think Stark needs to save water.”

“No, he certainly doesn’t. Let’s do it anyways.”

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

 

***

 

The evening with the Avengers was nicer than Peta had expected. She had thought that the approaching departure of Ronan would darken her mood completely, but it didn’t. She was still able to have fun and bond with the Avengers. She’d have preferred to spend the evening alone with Ronan, but Ronan didn’t say anything, so she assumed that he prefered to spend the evening in a group.

The evening with the Avengers was worse than Ronan had expected. He had always hated big group events, and participating in friendly conversations? That just wasn’t his cup of tea. He’d have preferred to spend the evening alone with Peta, to use these last hours with her, but she looked so happy talking to the other humans. He didn’t want to destroy her happiness by putting his needs over hers.

Eventually, the Avengers started to depart and go to bed. They wanted to leave rather early in the morning to send Thor and Loki on their way. Ronan and Peta weren’t the first to leave, but they certainly weren’t the last either. Steve, Thor, and Tony were still talking about everything, and nothing.

Peta gave them a wave when she and Ronan entered the elevator. Ronan looked as grim as always.

“Finally, we’re alone,” Ronan said as soon as the door closed, and took Peta’s hand. He really liked having her small and fragile (but warm) hand in his. It was almost as if he was protecting her.

“What?” Peta looked up at him. She raised her eyebrows in confusion. “But I thought you wanted to be up here?”

Ronan looked back, equally confused. “No, why would I? You humans are too loud, smell weird and talk nonsense all the time. And I don’t even like your Avengers. They’re your friends, not mine.”

“They’re not my friends, I haven’t known them long enough for that. They’re acquaintances at best. Wait. I smell weird?”

“No, you don’t. They do smell like human sweat. You smell like… like home.”

Peta smiled. “Like home?”

“Yes. Like some herbs and spices from Hala.”

Peta’s smile vanished. “Ah. I see.” She only smelled like some things that reminded him of his home. She had hoped that she was like a home to him, regardless of the way she smelled, but no. Life was more of a tragedy than a romance.

Ronan pressed a kiss on her hair. “It's not exactly like home. You smell also different.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I have never smelled anything like it.”

“Yeah, bet you're glad you don't have to smell the mix of perfect Hala’s herbs and human sweat after tomorrow ever again.”

“What?”

“Hmpf.”

“Love, please, don't twist my words. I really like the way you smell, and of course, I will miss it.”

“Then-"

“Don't start this again. We've talked about it. I can't take you with me. My people wouldn't understand. Relationships with foreigners are forbidden. Especially serious relationships. This is why I'm not allowed to fall in love with you, and it would be for your own good if you'd likewise not fall in love with me.”

_ It's far too late for this _ , Peta replied in her thoughts. “I know. Let's go to bed.”

“You want to sleep?”

Peta forced a grin on her face. “I didn't say that, did I?”

 

***

 

The next morning started late for Peta and Ronan. Peta made sure that Ronan would have no reason to leave the bed early, but eventually, they both gave in and grabbed something to eat in the kitchen.

And then they waited.

The Avengers had already left the tower hours ago, Thor and Loki were probably already in Asgard, drinking mead in the next tavern and telling their story to their fellow Asgardians.

Stupid, beautiful Thor.

Not as beautiful as Ronan, though. Even if Ronan could stand to smile a bit more, Peta thought. He was looking awfully grumpy these last hours. 

But he would probably look quite cute with hair and maybe a scruffy beard. But except for their lashes, Kree had no hair on their body. It was really fascinating. Ronan, on the other hand, was more fascinated by the fact that humans didn't only have hair on their heads.

Ronan’s screen started to beep.

They both looked at it for several seconds. They had placed it on the coffee table, while they were laying on Tony’s couch, watching TV.

Ronan put a thumb on it and stopped the beeping. “It's my people. They're telling me to get ready and go outside.”

“Do they know you're up here?”

“Yes.”

Peta sighed and slid off Ronan. “K. Let's dress you in this ridiculous armour.”

“It's not ridiculous.” Ronan got up.

“You have weapons that canshoot through it without any problems. That you're wearing it is ridiculous.”

“It's the traditional Accuser armour. Thor would never abandon his armour either.”

“His armour is at least not so depressingly dark.”

They started to dress Ronan in his armour like they had discussed before. “It's the colour of our strongest metal.”

“Yes, yes.” Peta rolled her eyes. Ronan's love for everything from Hala was ridiculous in her eyes. But she didn't know if she would be any different if she was the only one of her species on a foreign planet. “And because of your traditions, you can only paint it a bit red. I know, I know.”

“Then why are you complaining about the way it looks?”

“I'm not complaining about that. I'm trying to cover up the fact that you will leave me now and forever.”

“Love, we've talked about it. I'm not going to steal you away from your family. And Hala would never accept you. You would hate it there.”

“I don't care.”

“I know you do care. You love your mother more than anything. You don't want to break her heart.”

Ronan was right. Even though everything in her body wanted to go with Ronan, she wouldn't want to leave her mom for good, and never be able to see her again in the worst case. “I don't care about her,” she lied.

“Love…”

“Stop calling me that, Ro! It makes it even worse that you're leaving me now!”

“Stop calling- Oh. No. I don't call you “love" intentionally. I call you by your name. But it has the unfortunate meaning of “love" as an endearing name in my language. Apparently, I say your name in such a way that the translator isn't able to figure out the difference.”

“That's even worse,” Peta mumbled. She laid her forehead against the coldness of his chest armour.

Softly, Ronan stroked her hair.

They hadn't been standing like this for long when Ronan's screen started to beep again.

“They're here,” he whispered.

“No, they're not,” Peta replied. She just wanted one more minute with Ronan.

“Let me go or they will come in. We don't want this.”

Peta looked up to the tall alien. “Just kiss me one last time.”

Ronan smiled and cupped her face with both hands. She felt really tiny and fragile. Without hesitation, he kissed her. 

Peta put everything into this kiss, every emotion she had in her body. Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to convince Ronan with this last kiss to change his mind.

He didn't. Way too soon he had to let her go. He grabbed his Universal Weapon and went out to the balcony where his men were waiting for him. Peta wouldn't come outside with him, they had talked about this before. Ronan wanted a clean cut.

But she stood at the window and watched Ronan walking towards the small, dark ship. A blue man in a grey and teal armour was waiting for him. A captain of the Kree army. Neither he nor Ronan gave one last glance towards the window, neither when they greeted each other, nor when they entered the ship together.

Peta stood at the window as long as she could. She watched the ship become smaller and smaller until it vanished completely from her sight. Slowly she went back to the couch, sat down, and turned the TV off. She gave the communication device Ronan had left her one last glance before she turned it off, too. She had no need for it now.

Tony’s couch was way too big for Peta alone.

 

***

 

Peta was still hugging her legs on the couch and staring into nothing when Tony came back into his apartment. “Hey, Red, what's up?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled. Nothing was up and everything felt numb. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since Ronan had left. Was it mere minutes? Hours? Was it already dark outside and J.A.R.V.I.S. had automatically turned on the lights? She didn’t know and didn’t care. Everything was pointless now.

“He's gone?”

“Yeah.”

“Need a shoulder to cry?”

“No… Yes.”

Tony made himself comfortable next to Peta and put an arm around her shoulders. “Take your time,” he said softly. “Bruce is in his room, the others are gone. I don't mind tears on my suit.”

“It was never supposed to be that serious, you know?”

“I know, Red.”

“I never even wanted to have sex with him in the first place ‘cause I didn't want to end up like my mom.”

“Oh?”

“But somehow it happened. It just felt right. And now I'm never going to see him again.”

“You don't know that.”

“I do. Spacemen always make promises and break them in the end. His people mean too much to him. Maybe he will come once or twice to visit me, and knock me up by accident, who knows. But in the end, I'm going to be all alone and miserable. And he will proudly serve his planet and marry some blue, big boobed beauty and make many blue, beautiful babies with her. That's how it is going to end. And… and it hurts so much… it hurts so much only thinking about it. I don't want this!” Talking about Ronan's future without her had finally started to make her cry and now she just couldn't stop. She buried her face on Tony’s shoulder. The flow of tears just didn't seem to stop.

It felt like an eternity to her before the flow of tears stopped.

“Sorry… ruined your suit,” she mumbled.

“Nothing a dry cleaner can't fix,” Tony replied. He was rubbing small circles on her back with his flat hand. “Need a tissue? Even though you already used my suit for your snot.”

Peta just had to laugh on this remark. “Sorry. And yes.”

“And you better put a blanket over yourself. Do you still need someone to hold your hand?” He pulled a half-empty package of tissues out of a nearby closet, giving Peta a “Don't ask why they are here"-look.

Peta ignored this face completely and took the box. She didn't want to know any stories involving Tony Stark’s fluids.

“No. I'm fine.”

“I'm counting on you, Red.”

Peta forced a smile. “I'm fine. Really. You can leave me alone till dinner. I only hope it's no fancy dinner,” she joked. “I might have mislaid my evening gown.”

“Now I've got to cancel the table!”

“Tony…”

“Too early for jokes? How do you feel about Chinese?”

“Seems fine to me.”

“And when you're all good to go again, you can tell me the big secret. How big is his secret, what does it look like, what does it feel like and how does it work?”

“I ain't gonna tell ya.”

“You owe me one.”

“I gave you alien tech, we're even.” Peta blew her nose. “End of discussion.”

 

***

 

“You know, Peta, you can stay as long as you like,” Tony proposed during dinner that evening.

“Yeah. No. I'll hit the road tomorrow. You're more than twice my age. It doesn't feel right to stay any longer. As nice as this offer is! It is nice! Very! But no. I'll go back home tomorrow.”

Bruce and Pepper nodded in agreement.

“Also, I've got a job and don't want to get fired,” she mumbled.

And Tony understood.

 

***

 

The next morning after a quick and early breakfast together with Pepper (at least some people here had normal business hours and didn't spend their whole night in their workshop Pepper had said and Peta had laughed), Peta got into her truck and made her way back to Missouri.

 

***

 

The days went on without a word from Ronan. The days became weeks. Briefly, Peta played with the thought of turning Ronan's communication device off for good. It was still working since it had an internal energy source. But eventually, she decided against it. Ronan may never contact her, but the translator was useful. Being able to watch foreign TV was a blessing.

She had given up all hope that Ronan would ever come back to her. But it was okay. She was over it. Life moved on, no use crying over spilled beans and lost loves.

That was exactly what she told herself every day. This was exactly what she told herself when she came back into her room one evening after training to grab fresh clothes for a shower when the communication device was beeping.

Peta was sure her heart stopped beating for a moment. All the emotions she had hidden inside herself during these last weeks were back. Her mind went blank. Every little cell in her body pulled her towards the communication device. She didn’t want to, but she put her finger on the screen. She didn’t see Ronan. She couldn’t see Ronan. She wasn’t able to see Ronan. Never again. She didn’t want him to break her heart twice. She didn’t want him to leave her alone again. 

She took the call.

Ronan’s face appeared on the screen.

Her guts felt like they may explode any minute. She could finally see Ronan’s beautiful face again. He hadn’t changed a bit, except that he was wearing the dark paint on his face again that he wore on the day she had found him.

“Love,” Ronan smiled slightly, almost unnoticeable under the heavy face markings. He was doing the thing again where the translator automatically translated her name. She hated it. He had no right to say her name like this, not when he had abandoned her here, and she didn’t hear a single word from him in weeks. She loved it. Even in the weeks, they hadn’t seen each other his feelings for her had not changed.

“Fuck you.”

Ronan blinked slowly. “I probably deserved that.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to meet you.”

“Sure. Your place or mine?”

“Peta, please stop it with the sarcasm. It’s annoying.”

“Yeah, now you can say my name. I don’t want to see you again.”

“I want to ask you to accompany me to Hala.”

Oh. She certainly hadn’t expected this. She had thought that he just wanted to spend the night with her, maybe the next day.

“You don’t have to decide now. I can be on your planet - at your place - in half an hour of your time. We can talk. I would really appreciate it if you’d listen to the explanation of my silence these past weeks. If you don’t accept what I have to say, you will never hear from, or see me, again.”

Peta sighed. She wanted to see Ronan again, in person. She really did. “Fine. But take your time. I had training today, I need to take a shower.”

Ronan’s mouth twitched up slightly. “Do I have to bring you some medicine again for your bruises?”

“No. I’m going to wear them proudly. Like I normally do when there’s no alien tech around.”

“As you wish.” Ronan pressed the tips of his index and middle finger against his lips. A sign of love and respect for those you can not physically reach, he had explained to her once.

Ronan’s face on the screen vanished.

Peta knocked on her mother's bedroom door to inform her of Ronan's arrival before she jumped in the shower. Meredith stayed in bed. This was something between Ronan and Peta, she didn't want to be in the way.

Peta hurriedly washed, after all, she didn't want to let Ronan wait. After drying she got dressed in her beloved sweatpants and an old grey shirt. She didn't want to give Ronan any hint that she was desperate to leave with him. She wasn't!

Okay, she was, but only a bit.

Exactly 30 minutes had passed since their call when the doorbell rang.

Slowly, Peta went to the door. She wasn't in a hurry to see Ronan, no. She had all the time of the world. Painfully slowly, she opened the door, only to look into the face of her beloved alien.

Ronan was wearing his dark civilian clothes today instead of his armour.

“Love,” he said.

“No,” she replied.

“...”

Peta sighed deeply. “Come in. Kitchen. It's neutral ground.”

“Neutral ground?” Ronan raised one of his non-existent eyebrows. “Why would we need neutral ground?”

“For diplomatic discussions.” Peta turned around and went into the kitchen. Ronan followed her. “For you to explain yourself without me having beautiful memories attached to you in this room. I need a space where I can hate you freely.”

“You don't think pizza is a good memory?”

“...”

Ronan’s lips twitched up. “Or our first evening together after I woke up? When you desperately tried to find clothes for me and came into the kitchen without pants, without knowing that this was basically a marriage proposal on your end?”

“... It wasn't. You'd have told me.”

Ronan laughed deeply. Peta remembered why she was so fascinated with his voice. “You're right, it wasn't a marriage proposal. Still, a woman of Hala is only allowed to show her bare legs to her family members and her spouse. But as I've told you back then, you're a warrior. You're even allowed to walk around naked.”

Peta shook her head. “That doesn't make any sense.”

“It does for us Kree.”

“You're weird.”

“Says the person whose species defines the worth of a person based on their ability to breed.”

“Eh. It's a bit more complicated than that.”

“You get my point.” Ronan sat down on his chair.

No, not  _ his _ chair, Peta had to remind herself. It was one of her chairs and he'd just sat there before.

“I want to take you with me to Hala,” Ronan came to his point without prevarication. “I think we’re meant to be together. These few weeks without you were horrible. I don’t ever want to live like this again.”

Peta crossed her arms. “Then why didn’t you call?”

Ronan hesitated. “I had to work. I also had to try to regain my memories. That took all my time.”

“Did you regain your memories?”

“Yes. I was on a mission to find a certain artifact for my people. It’s a weapon called an Infinity Stone, contained in a grey Orb. My men found it and we were about to bring it back home when we got attacked by a man named Thanos who wants the Stones for himself to destroy the universe. I was the only one to escape, thinking that I took the Stone with me, but apparently, I didn’t. Thanos got the Stone and I crashed on Terra where you found me.”

The Orb. Something clicked in Peta’s head. The Orb was the ball. The ball that was resting upstairs in the drawer of her desk. She better not tell Ronan that she kinda stole it from him.

“I know when I take you with me to Hala, you’re not going to be welcome there. My people will despise me for wanting to be with an outsider. But I don’t care anymore. I always thought that I only need my people to be happy, but I became aware that this is not the case in these last weeks. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I love you, Peta Quill. I can’t bear the thought of living without you ever again. If you’d make me choose between you and Hala…” He took a deep breath. Clearly, it wasn’t easy for him to say the next words. “I would choose you over my planet anytime.”

Peta said nothing. Her eyes found Ronan’s. She knew he had told the truth. She knew she wanted to go with this man. She knew she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life on this planet. And yet…

“I can’t come with you.” There. She had said it. “I can’t give up my whole life for you. I don’t want to give up my family just for one man. Especially for one man who I didn’t hear from in weeks and who just now appeared back on my doorstep expecting me to forgive him for breaking my heart.”

“I understand and accept your decision. Would you allow me to stay here with you on Terra for an indefinite time?”

“... Why?”

“To show you that I'm serious about a relationship with you. I will leave Hala for you. Our relationship doesn’t even have to continue where we left it. We can start anew. If that’s what you want.”

Peta was speechless. She had expected many things, but not for Ronan to sacrifice everything just to be with her.

She smiled and gave Ronan her final answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the last chapter is already written and is in beta. sooo... I don't think to have to wait too long


	6. Four Songs

##### Epilogue - The Groom’s Song

***

 

It was the Furiali Ixis, the time of the great rain that happened only once every thousand years in the Furian desert. It was said that you and your beloved would stay happily together for the rest of your lives if you picked two of these rare petals and kept them. Even though he knew that Peta didn't believe in Kree legends, Ronan had left Kree-Lar three days ago to make his way to the desert.

It was already raining when Ronan arrived, so the flowers were already in full bloom. But he didn't stop for just the first flower he came across, no. He was the Supreme Accuser, after all. And Peta, Peta was perfect in his eyes. He couldn't just grab a random flower. It needed to be as beautiful as she was.

He searched for over a day, never being satisfied with any of the flowers he saw.

Finally, Ronan was willing to give up, ready to grab the next best flower, when he saw it.

The perfect flower.

It's petals weren't as big as those of the flowers around it, but it was taller. It had a strong pedicel and heavy, dark green leaves, bowing down from the rain. The pointed petals were bright red, and the closer it got to the center, the more purple they went. This flower was a combination of Peta’s beautiful hair and his own eyes, Ronan realized.

He took two petals, careful not to break them in any way. Finally, he was able to go back home, to see his Peta again. To kiss and to touch her.

And they would never break apart again.

 

***

##### Epilogue - The Mother’s Song

***

 

The house was quiet without Peta.

Even when they weren’t in the same room, Meredith could occasionally hear her daughter when she was at home. Music turned up too loud or a laughter Meredith didn't know the reason for, there had always been life in the house.

But now?

For the first time since the birth of her daughter, Meredith Quill sat in silence, knowing that Peta wouldn't return.

Now Meredith knew how her own spaceman, how Ego, had felt.

He had told her that he was born in complete silence, that he had taken ages to find himself. Ego had leaned over her pregnant belly one night when he thought she was sleeping, whispering to the unborn child.

“I hope you will be like me,” he had whispered. “I love your mother so much, you have to be the one.” He had pressed a kiss on her belly. “You will share the connection to the light, my unborn child, and I will finally not be alone anymore. All thanks to your beautiful mother.”

Ego had never explained to her what he had meant, she had never asked. She knew the words she had heard him whisper that night were not meant for her.

And now, for the first time in almost twenty years, she was alone.

But even though Peta wasn't living with her anymore, she wasn't really alone.

Meredith smiled to herself. She still had her family. She still had her boyfriend. She was only 37 years old. Maybe it was time to start anew, maybe she should ask her boyfriend to move in together.

Yes, the next time she saw him, she would ask. And maybe they would decide to start their own little family together.

Maybe when Peta came back to visit her, she could meet her little sibling.

 

***

##### Epilogue - The Bride’s Song

***

 

Ronan had been gone for almost two weeks now. He had something to do, official business, he had called it.

Peta had tried to get him to tell her what exactly he had to do, but he wouldn't tell. When Ronan went, she was still sulking, but not sulking so much that she didn't say goodbye to him. She was way too much in love, she was sure she wouldn't have survived the two weeks without a proper farewell.

She wasn't bored at all. One of Ronan's servants had brought her her own screen, she was learning all about all the different species in the galaxy. She spent her days in her bed in her pyjamas, only leaving to go to the bathroom. She even ate in her bed, even though she was sure that the servants didn’t approve of this.

But who was she to care about the opinion of other people?

Her bedroom door opened.

“I don't need anything,” she said without looking up. She was just reading about Centaurians. There were so many different blue species in the galaxy, it was unbelievable. But Kree were the most beautiful.

“Are you sure?” A smooth voice asked. “Then I think I'll go again.” Heavy steps came to her bed.

Peta turned around and smiled widely, opening her arms towards Ronan. “You're back.”

“Yes, love, I am back.” Instead of falling into her arms, he sat down on the bed next to her, grabbing her by the waist, and pulling her onto his lap.

She wrapped her arm around him, sure that she wouldn't let him go before nightfall.

Ronan pressed a soft kiss onto her forehead and one onto her lips.

“I've missed you,” Peta admitted, kissing his nose. “So much.”

“Did you?” Ronan smiled.

“It's so boring without you. I have no one to talk. Your slaves-"

“Servants.”

“Don't like me. Everyone looks at me like I'm the devil.”

“I don't think they look at you that way.”

“They do!” Peta insisted. Well, maybe not the devil, but they certainly didn’t approve of her and Ronan’s relationship with her. No one on Hala did. Once more she was certain that she’d ask Ronan to run away with her soon, to explore the universe. There was so much to see out there. So why should they live on a planet where everyone hated them for having a happy relationship?

“I've brought you something.”

“Really?” A present was the last thing she had expected. After all, Ronan had just been on a trip for work, and he wasn’t the most romantic type who’d bring his girlfriend presents, chocolate, and flowers. Was there even something like chocolate in space, or was it an Earth-only thing? She made a mental note to ask later.

“Really.”

“What is it?”

Ronan pulled a crumpled flower out of his cloak. No. Not a flower, only two single leaves.

“Er, thank you?” So he _was_ the romantic type! “But don't you bring a girl normally a bouquet of flowers? At least on Terra we do that.”

“These are the petals of a rare flower on Hala. It is said that you'll spend the rest of your life with the person you bring them to,” Ronan replied and pressed another kiss on Peta’s forehead.

Oh. This… was really sweet. Ronan was much more in love with her than Peta would ever have expected.

“Now, my sweet Kree, how about we go to your dressing room, get you naked, and discuss in detail how you want to spend your life with me?” She smiled.

Instead of giving her an answer, Ronan lifted her up, bridal style.

By standing up, he accidentally knocked over the chair which was standing close to her bed. Her bag on top of it fell down, opening wide, her things falling out of it.

A grey ball fell out too, landing on the floor with a loud _klonk_ , rolling over to Ronan's foot, and bouncing softly against him. Both Peta and Ronan looked down to the source of the sound.

“Peta. What’s the meaning of this?” Ronan growled lowly, eyeing the Orb. Slowly his eyes wandered to Peta. “I thought Thanos stole it.”

“Uh, I don’t know what you mean?”

 

***

##### Epilogue - The Captain’s Song

***

 

Far, far out in the galaxy a Ravager Captain lived happily with his adopted son, Peter Feather from Terra, who he had wrongly abducted when he had been looking for the child of Ego. Sometimes words just get lost in translation and accidents happen.


End file.
